Living antibiotic effective against Salmonella

Scientists have tested a predatory bacterium — Bdellovibrio — against Salmonella in the guts of live chickens. They found that it significantly reduced the numbers of Salmonella bacteria and, importantly, showed that Bdellovibrio are safe when ingested. The research, carried out by Professor Liz Sockett's team in the School of Biology at The University of Nottingham together with Robert Atterbury and Professor Paul Barrow in The University of Nottingham's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). It has been published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Researcher Laura Hobley said: "Bdellovibrio has the potential to be used as a living antibiotic against some major human and animal pathogens, such as E.coli and other so-called Gram-negative bacteria." Previous studies have shown that Bdellovibrio is very effective at invading and killing other bacterial cells in a test tube. It looks likely to provide an alternative to antibiotic medicines at a time when bacterial resistance is a significant problem to human and animal health. Hobley said: "We think that Bdellovibrio could be particularly useful as a topical treatment for wounds or foot rots but we wanted to know what might happen if it is ingested — either deliberately as a treatment, or by accident." Salmonella likes to grow in the guts of poultry and other animals and can cause food poisoning in humans.