Assignment 1: Article Summary #1

I found an article entitled, "Phage Therapy May Reduce Salmonella Infection in Pigs" and it can be found at the URL, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121154341.htm. While no author was given, the article cited the American Society of Microbiology for information.
This article looks at inoculating pigs against salmonella in order to prevent cases in human beings who eat the pork. Salmonella is spread through fecal matter, especially when the pigs are in enclosed areas and the sick are mixed in with the healthy pigs. The use of bacteriophages is interesting, since a good portion of the meats we consume are treated with antibiotics. The problem is that many of these microorganisms have become immune to the antibiotics and are essentially rendered ineffective. This is where bacteriophage is useful for bacteria-caused infections. Instead of antibiotics killing off bacteria, viruses are used to kill these harmful bacterial cells. Studies were completed on young pigs who were infected with salmonella and then inoculated with a "bacteriophage cocktail" and there effectiveness was determined to be between 99.0 and 99.9%. These pigs were then introduced to a variety of environments were they would be likely to pick up the salmonella organism, but never did. This seems to be a step in the right direction as far as protecting our food sources.