Bacteriophages safely reduce contamination in pet food and raw pet food ingredients.

Contamination of pet food with is a serious public health concern, and several disease outbreaks have recently occurred due to human exposure to tainted pet food. The problem is especially challenging for raw pet foods (which include raw meats, seafood, fruits, and vegetables). These foods are becoming increasingly popular because of their nutritional qualities, but they are also more difficult to maintain -free because they lack heat-treatment.

Bacteriophage cocktail for biocontrol of Salmonella in dried pet food.

Human salmonellosis has been associated with contaminated pet foods and treats. Therefore, there is interest in identifying novel approaches for reducing the risk of Salmonella contamination within pet food manufacturing environments. The use of lytic bacteriophages shows promise as a safe and effective way to mitigate Salmonella contamination in various food products.

Tetrahymena Pot2 is a developmentally regulated paralog of Pot1 that localizes to chromosome breakage sites but not to telomeres.

Tetrahymena telomeres are protected by a protein complex composed of Pot1, Tpt1, Pat1, and Pat2. Pot1 binds the 3' overhang and serves multiple roles in telomere maintenance. Here we describe Pot2, a paralog of Pot1 which has evolved a novel function during Tetrahymena sexual reproduction.

Bacteriophages lytic for rapidly reduce contamination on glass and stainless steel surfaces.

A cocktail of six lytic bacteriophages, SalmoFresh™, significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the number of surface-applied Kentucky and Brandenburg from stainless steel and glass surfaces by > 99% (2.1-4.