Phage cocktail reduces Salmonella on a commercial chicken farm

According to the World Health Organization, Salmonella is one of the most important zoonotic pathogens found in food. Poultry products are considered to be the primary source of Salmonella, which means that Salmonella must be controlled before harvest. Bacteriophages, which act as host-specific parasites of bacterial cells, represent one of the alternatives to antibiotics that can contribute to food safety. In the present study, the efficacy of the bacteriophage cocktail SalmoFREE ® against Salmonella was evaluated on a commercial broiler farm.

We evaluated the correlation between the use of SalmoFREE ® and productivity parameters (feed conversion, weight gain, homogeneity). Two field trials (Trial 1 n = 34,986; Trial 2 n = 34,680) were conducted under commercial rearing conditions on a Colombian broiler farm with a record of the presence of Salmonella. Each trial included 2 control chicken houses and 2 experimental ones. SalmoFREE ® and a control suspension were administered in the drinking water at three points during the production cycle, and the presence of Salmonella was evaluated in cloacal swabs the day before and after the treatments. The results showed that SalmoFREE ® controls the occurrence of Salmonella and affects neither the animals nor the production parameters, proving its efficacy and harmlessness on a production scale. We detected phage-specific genes in samples of total DNA extracted from ceca after treatment with SalmoFREE ® and tested for the emergence of cocktail-resistant Salmonella, which proved to be uncommon. These results provide important information for the introduction of phage therapy as an alternative to growth-promoting antibiotics in poultry farms.

More information at the source: https://academic.oup.com/ps/article/98/10/5054/5487641