Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** a challenging question in the…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** a challenging question in the 21ST century is how to feed the world, which is rapidly growing and projected to reach a population of 9.1 billion by 2050? To address this problem, animal agriculture, specifically the poultry sector that provides a stable source of protein, has intensified its production to meet the global demand for food. Alongside chicken (meat and EGG) production, turkey production also contributes significantly to the overall poultry economy. However, in recent times, the use of antibiotics in raising poultry has come under great scrutiny, as overuse of antibiotics increases the risk of the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which in turn has led to the RE-emergence of certain devastating infectious (BACTERIAL) diseases. One such disease is clostridial dermatitis (CD), also called gangrenous dermatitis, in turkeys; this disease is characterized by gangrene and peeling of the skin and sudden deaths of birds; thus, IT has become a major economically important health problem faced by turkey growers. Certain non-antibiotic control strategies such as improved farm management practices and using killed BACTERIAL vaccines, as well as prebiotics and probiotic feed additives, have been tried and tested with some degree of success in controlling CD. Unfortunately, there are no effective non-antibiotic means, such as vaccines, currently available to prevent this disease in turkeys. Therefore, the goal of this research is to develop an effective oral vaccine that can replace antibiotics and provide long-term immunity against CD in turkeys.probiotics are live microorganisms that provide health benefits when administered in adequate quantities. Specifically, the lactobacillus species of probiotic bacteria have been used extensively in research-based commercial applications to show that such probiotics given orally to poultry can promote GUT health and reduce inflammation in the intestine, and, thus, help in reducing GUT infections, including those caused by clostridial bacteria. On the vaccine research aspects, our laboratory has identified a vaccine candidate called 'ntatx-D2', which has shown promising prospects for preventing CD disease in turkeys. The unique and novel concept of this project is to combine the 'GUT health benefits of lactobacillus probiotic bacteria' and 'vaccine-induced disease-specific immunity' into a single platform to develop an oral probiotic-based vaccine to control CD in turkeys. To achieve this, our methodology will involve a three-step approach. First, using an established laboratory screening model, at least two lactobacillus BACTERIAL strains that possess excellent probiotic anti-inflammatory property will be selected from a pool of lactobacilli isolated from the turkey GUT. Second, the gene for ntatx-D2 (vaccine candidate) will be inserted into the genome (CHROMOSOME) of the two selected lactobacillus strains to develop probiotic-based molecular vaccines. Lastly, the efficacy of, these two vaccines in providing robust long-lasting immunity against CD disease while promoting GUT health in turkeys will be evaluated. One other unique aspect of this approach is that IT involves insertion of vaccine candidate gene directly into the lactobacillus BACTERIAL genome such that the live probiotic-based vaccines developed in this work will not need to carry antibiotic resistance genes in them to survive within the GUT. This attribute will ensure that these vaccines will not pose any potential environmental risk related to the spread of AMR, and thus become most ideal for food animal application. Therefore, this work will generate significant industry value by providing timely help to the turkey industry to control CD disease without dependence on antibiotics, and thus enhancing its sustainability and profitability. Future applications can also include devising novel probiotic vaccine-based strategies for the control of many other diseases affecting poultry and perhaps other food animals.