Potential of chicken egg (IgY) neutraceutical antibodies to improve animal production and food safety through passive immune protection against pathogens

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The emergence of multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria and the limited development and approval of new antibiotics in recent years have resulted in a critical and daunting challenge to reduce the risk and limit the spread of bacterial pathogens of importance to agricultural and food safety industries, and public health. Passive immunity through administration of target-specific antibodies can provide a promising and feasible alternative to antibiotics for reduction of bacterial pathogens. Administration of such antibodies can provide a means of preventing bacterial colonization as well as a rapid protection with a low probability of resistance. Effective protection can require repeated administration as such antibodies are present for a limited period in the intestinal tract or circulatory system. ****This Collaborative Research and Development grant involves Immune Biosolutions, the Quebec Federation of Egg Producers, and an academic research team from INRS. Their goal is to demonstrate the efficacy of antibodies extracted from chicken eggs against an important bacterial pathogen for both swine and humans, Clostridium difficile. The procedure for antiboby extraction has been developed by Immune Biosolutions, and now requires adaptations to provide extraction and processing at a more industrial scale. The research team will be led by C. M. Dozois, Prof. at INRS-Centre Armand-Frappier, who will coordinate the project and will be responsible for demonstrating the biological efficacy of the antibodies against C. difficile toxins in cell culture, and in animal challenge models. This research will establish new methods for production/extraction of antibodies and demonstrate the feasibility of prevention/treatment of C. difficile infections, but importantly also establish the potential for this technology to reduce infections or prevent colonization of other specific pathogens of relevance to agriculture, aquaculture, food safety and public health. ************