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<li>Isolate and determine the efficacy of bacteriophage to reduce food borne human pathogen contamination of poultry products and to prevent poultry diseases.</li>
<li>Determine the effects of stress on the innate immune system of turkeys and resulting susceptibility to bacterial infections of food safety importance, develop appropriate interventions to decrease pathogens load and susceptibility to disease, and develop assays to measure those effects.</li>
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<p>Bacteriophage are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. Bacteriophage will be isolated and characterized for selected pathogens that cause food borne illness or that cause significant diseases in poultry, including E coli, Salmonella sp., Campylobacter jejuni, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Bordetella avium. Isolated bacteriophage will be used in various ways to determine their efficacy to prevent poultry diseases or to prevent poultry from harboring bacteria that cause food borne illness. We will use an experimental stress model to produce E. coli airsacculites, and septicemia, and osteomyelitis complex in turkeys and to study the efficacy of nutritional, pharmocological, environmental, and behavioral strategies to decrease the response to stress and resulting immunosuppression. We will adapt this model to explore the effects of stress on the shedding of pathogenic organisms affecting the safety of turkey products, including E. coli, L. monocytogenes, S.aureus, Salmonella sp., C. jejuni, and Clostridia sp.</p>