A recent study has shown the potential of a bacteriophage cocktail for controlling nontyphoidal Salmonella enterica on chicken, while also emphasizing that, because phage efficacy is dependent on many variables, validating treatments for relevant application conditions is key.
Nontyphoidal Salmonella causes approximately 150 million cases of foodborne illnesses every year, many of which are linked to poultry products—specifically, 23 percent of nontyphoidal Salmonella infections in the U.S. have been linked to poultry products. The public health burden of salmonellosis attributable to poultry, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) related efforts to reduce cases of illness caused by Salmonella on chicken, which includes declaring the pathogen an adulterant in certain chicken products, makes the control of Salmonella in poultry increasingly urgent.