Iowa State University was awarded a $635,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program (AFRI, CFDA #10.310).
The grant will fund research to evaluate how exposure to segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) can drive chicken gut maturation and prevent colonization by harmful bacteria such as Salmonella enterica. Specifically, the university will develop an SFB inoculum for treating chickens, assess how SFB treatment increases gut maturation and immune stimulation, and test resistance to intestinal Enterobacteriaceae like S. enterica.
The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) will provide technical and intellectual support to the project as a $12,000 federal grant sub-award. ARS will assist with experiments testing SFB samples, Salmonella challenge testing, and data analysis to help optimize an SFB inoculum and determine the breadth of resistance induced against intestinal pathogens. The research aims to improve gut health in chickens and thereby increase poultry productivity and health.
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