Leicester university researchers secure £800,000 to advance bacteriophage treatment for Salmonella in chickens amid egg safety concerns

A University of Leicester team, backed by £800,000 from BBSRC, is developing bacteriophage therapy to combat Salmonella in chickens, aiming to prevent contamination in the food chain amid ongoing outbreaks linked to imported eggs with multi-drug resistant strains.

A University of Leicester team has won £800,000 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council to push a bacteriophage treatment for Salmonella in chickens nearer commercial use. The funding arrives as UK health officials investigate a growing outbreak linked to imported eggs, underlining the commercial value of tools that can cut contamination before it reaches the food chain.

Professor Martha Clokie and Dr Anisha Thanki at the Becky Mayer Centre for Phage Research say their liquid product has already reduced infection in broiler chickens and can be manufactured at litre scale, after earlier work took production from millilitres to litres. The next phase will test whether it holds up against newly circulating and multi-drug resistant Salmonella strains, and assess its effects on the poultry microbiome.

The project involves the universities of Nottingham and Surrey, alongside Carus Animal Health, a UK-based veterinary innovation and animal health company. That broader collaboration reflects the challenge of translating a laboratory result into something farmers can use reliably in commercial houses.

Salmonella remains a costly problem for the industry, with foodborne outbreaks still causing substantial public-health and supply-chain disruption. According to the UK Health Security Agency, the recent imported-egg outbreak has caused hundreds of illnesses and at least one death, while separate reporting has pointed to even larger case counts across multiple clusters.

Source: Noah Wire Services