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The overall objective is to determine if flavophospholipol added to feed can help control Salmonella in pigs so that fewer pigs carry these pathogenic bacteria at the time of slaughter and therefore the risk of meat contamination is reduced.
<p>The specific objectives are: </p>
<p><ol><li>to investigate whether in-feed flavophospholipol can depressed Salmonella colonization and Salmonella shedding in pigs </li>
<li>to determine whether in-feed flavophospholipol can reduce antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella and commensal E. coli in pigs</li>
<li>to study whether in-feed flavophospholipol can improve growth rate and feed efficiency in pigs</li>
<li>to investigate whether in-feed flavophospholipol can alter microbiome in favor of beneficial bacterial population in GI tract of pigs and thus provide a possible explanation of how this antibiotic is able to reduce Salmonella shedding despite having little direct activity against Salmonella</li></ol></p>
<p>Salmonella are commonly found on Ontario pig farms posing a food safety threat. Control of Salmonella is difficult. In general, the use of antibiotics is discouraged because of the concern that antibiotic use will lead to antimicrobial resistance. However, flavophospholipol might be considered because it is an antibiotic with no analog in human medicine and preliminary work suggests it might, in fact, reduce antimicrobial resistance. It doesn’t act directly against Salmonella but possibly modifies the gut microbiome in a positive manner. We propose to investigate whether in-feed use of flavophospholipol can control Salmonella shedding/colonization in pigs and reduce antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella and commensal E. coli. One trial using naturally-infected pigs and one controlled experimental-challenge trial will be conducted to compare Salmonella shedding/colonization and antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella and commensal E. coli as well as comparing the gut bacterial population (microbiome) in pigs fed flavophospholipol with pigs not receiving flavophospholipol.</p>