SBIR Phase II: New Antimicrobial Technologies to Eliminate Salmonella Carriage in Poultry

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目如果成功，其更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发一种益生菌疗法，可用于减少或消除家禽中的沙门氏菌和其他感染。最近FDA的兽医饲料指令将导致抗生素的使用在牲畜生产中被逐步淘汰。在没有抗生素的情况下，需要新的技术来控制病原体。这项技术的目标是减少收获前家禽中的病原体，这可能导致更安全的食品和减少食源性疾病。此外，这项技术可能有助于减少家禽生产中抗生素的使用量，这被认为是抗药性细菌上升的主要因素。这项SBIR第二阶段项目将导致使用经工程设计的益生菌生产抗菌肽(AMP)的新型抗菌技术的开发。抗菌肽(AMPs)是一种具有显著杀菌特性的小分子蛋白质。在第一阶段，成功制造了益生菌，并作为AMP递送载体进行了测试。益生菌是一种耐胆汁的微生物，可以在动物的食物或水中安全地提供给它们。这些抗菌益生菌将用于测试禽类肠道中病原体的减少情况。禽类肠道中的病原体被认为是禽肉加工过程中受污染的主要来源。经过改造的益生菌将使用合成的DNA启动子区域，这些区域旨在精确控制感染部位AMP的传递。这种影响将在可控AMP输送的益生菌对受到肠炎沙门氏菌和空肠弯曲菌这两种常见食源性病原体挑战的家禽上进行现场试验。抗菌素益生菌还将针对产气荚膜梭菌进行测试，产气荚膜梭菌是家禽坏死性肠炎的病原体，在美国，这种疾病每年导致数十亿美元的生产力损失。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project, if successful, will be the development of a probiotic treatment that may be used to reduce or eliminates Salmonella and other infections in poultry. The recent FDA Veterinary Feed Directive will result in the use of antibiotics being phased out of livestock production. New technologies are needed to control pathogens in the absence of antibiotics. The goal of this technology is the reduction of pathogens in pre-harvest poultry, which may result in safer food and reduced foodborne illnesses. In addition, this technology may help reduce the amount of antibiotics used in poultry production, which has been cited as a major factor in the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.This SBIR Phase II project will result in the development of novel antimicrobial technologies using probiotics engineered to produce antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small proteins with remarkable bactericidal properties. During Phase I, probiotics were built successfully and tested as AMP-delivery vehicles. Probiotics are bile-resistant microorganisms that can be provided to animals safely in their food or water. The antimicrobial probiotics will be used to test the reduction of pathogens in poultry guts. Pathogens in poultry guts are considered the major source of contamination of poultry meat during processing. The engineered probiotics will use synthetic DNA promoter regions that are designed to precisely control the delivery of AMPs at the site of infection. The impact will be examined in field trials of probiotics with controllable AMP delivery on poultry challenged by Salmonella enteritidis and Campylobacter jejuni, two common foodborne pathogens. Antimicrobial probiotics also will be tested against Clostridia perfringens, the causal agent of poultry necrotic enteritis, an illness that causes billions of dollars in productivity losses every year in the US.