Agricultural Research magazine reports that Bruce Seal, research leader for the ARS Poultry Microbiological Safety Research Unit in Athens, Georgia, is directing a group in the area of reducing food borne bacterial pathogens like Campylobacter and Salmonella by testing purified bacteriocins on broiler chickens challenged and colonized with either Salmonella or Campylobacter.

The scientists are continuing work spearheaded by ARS microbiologist Norman Stern, who was awarded two patent applications relating to bacteriocins, low-molecular-weight polypeptides that kill competing organisms but Stern focused his endeavors on Campylobacter. The work was completed in collaboration with Edward Svetoch, a Russian Federation scientist at the State Research Center for Applied Microbiology in Obolensk.