The purpose of the proposed research is to develop and implement gastrointestinal management strategies that will reduce foodborne pathogen colonization of food producing animals.
Specific objectives are to: <OL> <LI> Continue development of a defined competitive exclusion product capable of reducing human food pathogen colonization of swine <LI>In cooperation with CRADA partner, perform FDA pivotal field trials with the CE product to demonstrate efficacy of product and facilitate industry use in commercial
State of the art continuous flow culture models will be used to test potential mitigation strategies with pure and mixed microbial populations and information gained from these studies will be validated via in vivo experimentation using animal models. Strategies to be tested include: 1) competitive exclusion, 2) chlorate supplemntation, 3) inhibition of pathogen attachment and 4) artificial manipulation of regulatory activities. Knowledge gained will be used to develop and implement practical and efficacious mitigation strategies to rid the pathogens from food producing animals prior to slaughter.