About Us
A grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has been awarded to a research team to support development of novel non-antibiotic approaches for mitigation of antimicrobial resistance in poultry.
There is an increasing pressure to reduce and eliminate the use of in-feed antibiotics for growth promotion and disease control in food animals. However, there are two concerns that prevent animal industries from reducing antibiotic usage: the nutrition concern for feed efficiency and growth rate and the disease concern for preventing and controlling microbial infections. To directly address these two concerns, in this project, we will develop and evaluate two novel classes of natural compounds as non-antibiotic feed additives for enhanced production efficiency and gut health in broilers. Specific objectives of the research are to 1) develop bile salt hydrolase inhibitors to enhance animal growth and production efficiency, 2) develop host defense peptide-inducing dietary compounds to promote gut health and pathogen clearance, and 3) develop outreach and education programs to encourage adoption of innovative non-antibiotic strategies.
Our research team includes 5 members from three institutions. Two of the team members are from The University Tennessee’s Animal Science or Food Science department. The UT investigators will provide overall direction and coordination of project activities, encapsulate small compounds using innovative and cost-effective technologies, perform microbiological and metabolomics studies with chicken intestinal samples, and participate part of education and outreach activities. Other participating institutions are Oklahoma State University and Mississippi State University. Oklahoma State University researchers will focus on assessment of the encapsulated host defense peptide-inducing dietary compounds, while Mississippi State University will perform large chicken pen trials and cover majority of extension and education programs for poultry producers and processors. A brief description of each team member’s expertise and responsibility is provided below.
Research Team
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Jun Lin
Project Director
Jun Lin is a microbiologist and Professor of Animal Sciences at The University of Tennessee. Work in his laboratory focuses on antimicrobial resistance and pathogenesis of foodborne pathogens in various animal hosts, particularly in poultry. His group is also highly experienced in harnessing gut microbiota information for developing innovative alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters. Dr. Lin is responsible for the overall direction and coordination of the proposed activities. Dr. Lin’s laboratory will coordinate with other investigators to encapsulate BSH inhibitors and perform in vivo validation. Dr. Lin will contribute his expertise to all microbiology issues in this project. Dr. Lin also will be responsible for teaching the innovative graduate course and organizing the National Poultry Antibiotic Resistance Mitigation Symposium.
Telephone
(865) 974-5598
Email
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Qixin Zhong
Co-Project Director
Qixin Zhong is a Professor of Food Science at The University of Tennessee. His background is in food science and chemical engineering. He has extensive experience in food colloids, physical properties of foods, functionalities of dairy proteins and polysaccharides, protein purification and biochemistry, and thermal processing. Dr. Zhong will be involved in all aspects of encapsulation of small molecules proposed in this project.
Telephone
(865) 974-6196
Email
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Glenn Zhang
Co-Project Director
Glenn Zhang is a Professor of Molecular Immunology and Boulware Endowed Chair in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Oklahoma State University. His research has been focused on the modulation of gut immunity and microbiota. His group has identified several different classes of dietary compounds with the ability to induce host defense peptide synthesis in chickens. In this project, Dr. Zhang will evaluate in vivo efficacy of host defense peptide-inducing dietary compounds in the induction of host defense peptides, growth promotion, gut health, and control of zoonotic pathogens in broilers. Dr. Zhang also will actively involve graduate student training and extension activities in this project.
Telephone
(405) 744-8867
Email
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Thomas Tabler
Co-Project Director
Thomas Tabler is an Extension Professor with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. He spent 21 years with the poultry science department at the University of Arkansas (UofA) before joining Mississippi State in 2012. He managed a 4-house commercial broiler farm owned by the UofA for 21 years and oversaw a 2-house commercial breeder hen operation for 5 years. He had both a research and Extension appointment while at Arkansas. He has a 100% Extension appointment at Mississippi State and works primarily with the commercial poultry industry and its contract growers on a variety of issues. Dr. Tabler will be the extension team leader and will be responsible for overall planning, coordination and conduct of educational activities targeting poultry producers and veterinarians.
Telephone
(662) 325-3416
Email
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Wei Zhai
Co-Project Director
Wei Zhai is an Associate Professor of Poultry Nutrition at the Department of Poultry Sciences, Mississippi State University. Her research focuses on evaluating emerging feed ingredients and antibiotic alternatives on broiler gut health, physiology status, growth performance, and meat yield. She will be responsible for the comprehensive evaluation of encapsulated BSH inhibitors and encapsulated small compounds to booster host immunity. She also will be actively involved in various extension activities including graduate student education/training.
Telephone
(662) 325-3416
Email