Development of a disinfectant for hatching eggs

在家禽生产的关键阶段，孵化蛋、小鸡和家禽的细菌感染是造成重大家禽福利问题和经济损失的原因。对于孵化场来说，严重感染的鸡蛋可能会爆炸，导致整个孵化场受到污染，并增加新生雏鸡的感染率。感染可以用抗生素治疗；然而，随着抗生素耐药性的增加和家禽业对减少抗生素使用的承诺，需要采取其他战略来减少这些感染和家禽损失。这项研究的目的是与加拿大孵化蛋生产商（CHEP）合作，开发一种有效、廉价、无毒的细菌消毒剂，在鸡蛋和周围环境中的家禽相关病原体产生感染之前将其消灭。这将大大减少对鸡使用抗生素的需求，并提高鸟类的健康水平。这一目标将通过筛选我们新发现的抗多种细菌的抗菌化合物来实现，以确定将在各种表面和最广泛的环境条件下起作用的候选物质。我们还将评估候选消毒剂及其分解产物对受精卵的毒性，以确保它们对胚胎是安全的。我们提出的这类消毒剂的一个主要优点是它能在环境中分解。这意味着细菌不太可能对它产生耐药性，因此它将为解决孵化场的细菌感染提供一个长期的解决方案。耐药性的发展是目前使用的消毒剂的一个持续问题。减少感染发生率将大大减少生产者的经济损失，改善鸟类福利，为加拿大家禽业和加拿大经济带来重大利益。

Bacterial infections of hatching eggs, chicks and poults are responsible for significant poultry welfare concerns and economic losses at key stages of poultry production. For hatcheries, severely infected eggs can explode, resulting in contamination of the entire hatcher, and increasing infection rates among emerging chicks. Infections can be treated with antibiotics; however, with increasing antibiotic resistance and the poultry industry's commitment to reducing antibiotic use, alternative strategies are needed to reduce these infections and poultry losses. The objective of this research is to develop an effective, inexpensive, non-toxic bacterial disinfectant, in collaboration with Canadian Hatching Egg Producers (CHEP), which would target poultry-related pathogens on eggs and in the surrounding environment before they can establish infections. This would reduce significantly the need for administering antibiotics to chickens and enhance bird well-being. This objective will be achieved by screening our newly discovered antibacterial compounds against a wide range of bacteria to identify candidates that will work on a variety of surfaces, and under the widest range of environmental conditions. We will also assess toxicity of the candidate disinfectants and their breakdown products on fertilized eggs to ensure that they are safe for embryos. One of the main advantages of our proposed class of disinfectant is that it breaks down in the environment. This means that bacteria are less likely to develop resistance to it, such that it would provide a longer term solution to addressing bacterial infections in hatcheries. Development of resistance is an ongoing issue with currently used disinfectants. Reducing the incidence of infection will greatly reduce economic losses for producers and improve bird welfare, providing significant benefits to the Canadian poultry industry, and to the Canadian economy.