A respiratory probiotic to combat infection by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae in the pig.

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Pigs suffer a common, natural disease, contagious pleuropneumonia, due to the Gram-negative pathogen A. pleuropneumoniae (App). Some pigs suffer severe acute (fatal) disease and a high proportion harbour the bacteria in the respiratory lymphoid tissues. In-feed antibiotics and vaccination can control the disease but do not remove the pathogen from the herd. As antibiotic use becomes less publicly acceptable, alternative methods will be needed to control endemic disease in the herd. In BBSRC-funded research of genetics of virulence of App we have generated a number of mutants of App. In a new approach to control disease and carriage of App, we will test genetically-defined, non-virulent mutants to competitively exclude App from the respiratory tract and lymphoid tissues of the pig and occupy the ecological niche of the pathogen. A 'designer probiotic' for the respiratory tract represents a new, safe biological control method intended to reduce or eliminate these bacteria in a pig herd. This concept, a novel means of control of endemic respiratory disease in farmed animals, may offer the opportunity for a gradual eradication of this pathogen from the national herd.