Projects
Development of Salmonella live attenuated vaccine strains for various serotypes in layers+ broilers Ghent University
Vaccines have been produced but most of the current vaccines are undefined mutants produced by chemical mutagenesis or by isolating U+2018aturalU+2019mutants of wild-type strains. The current project aims to A) produce a combined Salmonella Enteritidis/Typhimurium vaccine that protects against shedding and colonization by strains of both serotypes in broilers, and B) a Salmonella Gallinarum vaccine that protects against fowl typhoid in ...
The ecology of phage-based biocontrol of Salmonella Typhimurium KU Leuven
The presence of pathogens in the food industry needs to be contained and counteracted. Biological control offers an alternative venue involving natural enemies to eliminate pathogens. In this field, an emerging approach is the use of obligately lytic phages. However, phage applications in field or trials are often not as efficient as anticipated from laboratory tests. To a large extent, these problems stem from the fact that biocontrol is ...
Translational control in infection biology: the role of sORFs in Salmonella pathogenesis. Ghent University
High-throughput applications such as next-generation sequencing are frequently applied in modern biological and medical research allowing for comprehensive studies at the scale unattainable by classical techniques. Recent technology advancements enable protein translation measurement on the mRNA level by massive sequencing of ribosome-captured messenger RNA footprints (i.e. ribosome profiling). This project proposal is situated on the ...
Salmonella Paratyphi A: The emergence of a neglected pathogen in Asia Institute of Tropical Medicine
Salmonella
The Gram-negative bacteria Salmonella causes a variety of clinical syndromes in humans, ranging from a mild gastro-enteritis to a life-threatening blood stream infection. Most widely known are the serovars Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi A that cause typhoid and paratyphoid fever respectively (also known combined as ‘enteric fever’). In contrast with other, non –typhoidal, Salmonella serovars ...
Guarantee the safety of live Salmonella vaccines by introducing deletions in genes crucial for egg contamination Ghent University
Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Enteritidis is a pandemic pathogen, present in
countries with industrial poultry production since the 1990s. Ingestion of this foodborne
pathogen by humans results in gastroenteritis and is linked to contaminated eggs and egg
products. Salmonellosis caused by Salmonella Enteritidis in chickens however does not lead to
clinical symptoms but causes enormous economic losses. ...
Effect of vaccination against Salmonella Typhimurium in pigs under field conditions Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
The general aim of the project is to improve the control of Salmonella infections of pigs to deliver scientifically sound advice about the effect of vaccination against Salmonella under field conditions and its eventual implementation in a national control program. The specific objectives are: 1. To investigate to which extent vaccination of sows and/or piglets can play a role in the control of Salmonella ...
Innovative feed additives for the reduction of Salmonella contaminated pork - II Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Is it possible to reduce Salmonella shedding by pigs by using innovative feed additives? If so, this could result in fewer Salmonella shedding pigs being delivered to the slaughterhouse. That in turn reduces the risk of meat being contaminated with this bacterium during the slaughter process. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of human Salmonella cases and to maintain the strong ...
Predicting and treating non-typhoidal Salmonella bloodstream infection in children in sub-Saharan Africa KU Leuven
Unlike in Northern countries, where non-typhoidal Salmonella causes self-limiting diarrhea, non-typhoidal Salmonella is the most common cause of bacterial bloodstream infections in children in sub-Saharan Africa. Case fatality is between 20-30%. Susceptible hosts include children with Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) malaria, severe anemia, acute malnutrition, and HIV infected individuals. Salmonella ...
Interference with defensive responses in pathogenic communities at the host interface: A modelling approach towards an integrated strategy for Salmonella control in chickens. KU Leuven
Bacteria in the gut live in dense and genetically diverse communities, in which they strongly compete with each other for resources and space. A key corollary of the importance of competition is that it should strongly shape bacterial regulatory networks. Indeed, natural selection should favor cells that can detect and respond appropriately to the presence of competing strains. We hypothesize that these defensive responses to competition are ...