We hypothesized that phage therapy could be developed as
an effective means to counteract transport- and lairage-associated
increases in Salmonella colonization in swine. Phage therapy
has the advantage of being natural, nontoxic, and relatively
inexpensive and could be used just prior to slaughter, unlike
many antibiotics (18, 28). Here we describe a series of experiments
demonstrating that treating market-weight pigs with an
anti-Salmonella phage cocktail prior to their comingling with
Salmonella-infected pigs in a highly contaminated environment
resulted in reductions in Salmonella colonization. We further
show that the phage cocktail could be effectively microencapsulated,
making feed or water delivery possible.