Bacteriophages and Foodborne Pathogens in Animal Production

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal System and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 4269

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Poultry Science, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
Interests: meat science; food safety; poultry processing; poultry food safety and quality

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Guest Editor
College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA
Interests: Veterinary microbiology; nutritional immunology; animal and poultry health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bacteriophages are the most abundant group of organisms present on Earth, and they can be broadly classified into lytic (virulent) and lysogenic (temperate) phages. Lytic phages can invade and lyse specific target bacterial cells, which makes them promising antibacterial agents. Recent developments in the application of bacteriophages in animal production to enhance food safety have attracted a lot of attention.

This Special Issue of Animals entitled ‘Bacteriophages and Foodborne Pathogens in Animal Production’ invites works (research manuscripts and reviews) on the application of bacteriophages in animal production to enhance food safety.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

  1. Pre-harvest application of bacteriophages in livestock and poultry;
  2. Post-harvest bacteriophage interventions;
  3. Bacteriophage-based pathogen detection.

Dr. Anuraj T. Sukumaran
Dr. Muhammed Shafeekh Muyyarikkandy
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bacteriophages
  • food safety
  • animal and poultry production
  • post-harvest interventions
  • pre-harvest interventions
  • biological pathogen control

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 4241 KiB  
Article
An Experimental Field Trial Investigating the Use of Bacteriophage and Manure Slurry Applications in Beef Cattle Feedlot Pens for Salmonella Mitigation
by Colette A. Nickodem, Ashley N. Arnold, Matthew R. Beck, K. Jack Bush, Kerri B. Gehring, Jason J. Gill, Tram Le, Jarret A. Proctor, John T. Richeson, H. Morgan Scott, Jason K. Smith, T. Matthew Taylor, Javier Vinasco and Keri N. Norman
Animals 2023, 13(20), 3170; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13203170 - 11 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1419
Abstract
Post-harvest Salmonella mitigation techniques are insufficient at addressing Salmonella harbored in cattle lymph nodes, necessitating the exploration of pre-harvest alternatives that reduce Salmonella prior to dissemination to the lymph nodes. A 2 × 2, unbalanced experiment was conducted to determine the effectiveness of [...] Read more.
Post-harvest Salmonella mitigation techniques are insufficient at addressing Salmonella harbored in cattle lymph nodes, necessitating the exploration of pre-harvest alternatives that reduce Salmonella prior to dissemination to the lymph nodes. A 2 × 2, unbalanced experiment was conducted to determine the effectiveness of pre-harvest treatments applied to the pen surface for Salmonella mitigation in cattle. Treatments included manure slurry intended to mimic pen run-off water (n = 4 pens), a bacteriophage cocktail (n = 4), a combination of both treatments (n = 5), and a control group (n = 5) that received no treatment. Environment samples from 18 feedlot pens and fecal grabs, hide swabs, and subiliac lymph nodes from 178 cattle were collected and selectively enriched for Salmonella, and Salmonella isolates were sequenced. The combination treatment was most effective at reducing Salmonella, and the prevalence was significantly lower compared with the control group for rump swabs on Days 14 and 21. The treatment impact on Salmonella in the lymph nodes could not be determined due to low prevalence. The reduction on cattle hides suggests that bacteriophage or water treatments applied to the feedlot pen surface may reduce Salmonella populations in cattle during the pre-harvest period, resulting in reduced contamination during slaughter and processing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bacteriophages and Foodborne Pathogens in Animal Production)
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12 pages, 652 KiB  
Article
Oral Administration of a Phage Cocktail to Reduce Salmonella Colonization in Broiler Gastrointestinal Tract—A Pilot Study
by Wattana Pelyuntha, Ananya Yafa, Ruttayaporn Ngasaman, Mingkwan Yingkajorn, Kridda Chukiatsiri, Nidanut Champoochana and Kitiya Vongkamjan
Animals 2022, 12(22), 3087; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12223087 - 9 Nov 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2418
Abstract
Salmonella contamination in poultry meat products can lead to serious foodborne illness and economic loss from product recalls. It is crucial to control Salmonella contamination in poultry from farm to fork. Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses of bacteria that offer several advantages, especially their [...] Read more.
Salmonella contamination in poultry meat products can lead to serious foodborne illness and economic loss from product recalls. It is crucial to control Salmonella contamination in poultry from farm to fork. Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses of bacteria that offer several advantages, especially their specificity to target bacteria. In our study, three Salmonella phages (vB_SenS_KP001, vB_SenS_KP005, and vB_SenS_WP110) recovered from a broiler farm and wastewater treatment stations showed high lysis ability ranging from 85.7 to 96.4% on over 56 serovars of Salmonella derived from several sources, including livestock and a broiler farm environment. A three-phage cocktail reduced S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium, in vitro by 3.9 ± 0.0 and 3.9 ± 0.2 log units at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 103 and 3.8 ± 0.4 and 4.1 ± 0.2 log units at MOI of 104 after 6 h post-phage treatment. A developed phage cocktail did not cause phage resistance in Salmonella during phage treatments for three passages. Phages could survive under simulated chicken gastrointestinal conditions in the presence of gastric acid for 2 h (100.0 ± 0.0% survivability), bile salt for 1 h (98.1 ± 1.0% survivability), and intestinal fluid for 4 h (100 ± 0.0% survivability). Each phage was in the phage cocktail at a concentration of up to 9.0 log PFU/mL. These did not cause any cytotoxicity to human fibroblast cells or Caco-2 cells as indicated by the percent of cell viability, which remained nearly 100% as compared with the control during 72 h of co-culture. The phage cocktail was given to broilers raised in commercial conditions at a 9 log PFU/dose for five doses, while naturally occurring Salmonella cells colonized in the gastrointestinal tract of broilers were significantly reduced as suggested by a considerably lower Salmonella prevalence from over 70 to 0% prevalence after four days of phage treatment. Our findings suggest that a phage cocktail is an effective biocontrol agent to reduce Salmonella present in the guts of broilers, which can be applied to improve food safety in broiler production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bacteriophages and Foodborne Pathogens in Animal Production)
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