Location: Food and Feed Safety Research
Project Number: 3091-32000-037-007-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2017
End Date: Jul 31, 2022
Objective:
Develop novel alternatives to antimicrobials (ATA) strategies to reduce foodborne pathogenic bacteria carriage in poultry production using extracts from a unique set of ecosystems. This project will produce novel antimicrobials via organic and aqueous extraction methods from native fungi, bacteria, and yeast stored in the Colombian Corporation of Agricultural Research (CORPOICA), Bogota, Colombia, Microbial Germplasm Collections. The proposed project formalizes an extension of on-going food safety projects with Colombian government agencies (country-wide Salmonella surveillance, phytochemical extracts against Salmonella in broilers, development of a calf anti-diarrhea probiotic) as well as university-partnered projects (development of an anti-Shigella probiotic and a tilapia-derived probiotic) that takes advantage of resources unavailable to other research institutes worldwide. Results of this project will further goals of the parent projects in NP 108 to identify and investigate alternatives to antibiotics against enteropathogens in poultry. Goals of this study include development of novel ATA for use in poultry, as well as in swine and calves, against food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella species, Campylobacter species, and E. coli. The proposed project utilizes an existing relationship with CORPOICA that provides FFSRU access to a unique collection of novel microbially-derived antimicrobials that cannot be examined within the U.S. This proposed project will allow us access to researchers with expertise in isolation of antimicrobials, compounds that inhibit biofilm formation, and anti-quorum sensing molecules, as well as expertise in novel extraction, isolation, identification, and in vitro and in vivo analyses.
Approach:
Alternatives to traditional antimicrobials (ATA) will be isolated and identified in extracts (e.g., organic and aqueous solutions, HPLC, supercritical CO2, distillation, cold press, hot press) from Microbial Germplasm Collection fungi, bacteria, and yeast collected from all regions and biomes across the equatorial, rainforest, and mountainous regions of Colombia. Extracts from microbial cultures will be examined for antimicrobial and anti-quorum sensing properties against a spectrum of foodborne and environmental pathogens that impact human health (e.g., Salmonella, Campylobacter, and enterohemorrhagic E. coli). The initial approach will be to examine antimicrobial impacts of extracts and isolated components in a 96-well microtiter plate platform, and extracts will be evaluated based on their inhibition of growth, inhibition of bacterial biofilm formation, and anti-quorum sensing properties of pure cultures of pathogenic bacteria. Successful antimicrobial components will be examined in more detail at our ARS facility, first using in vitro mixed cecal bacterial culture and subsequently in live poultry to determine the in vivo efficacy against Salmonella and Campylobacter.
