With the introduction of the technology from Wageningen’s Micreos Food Safety, their partner PhageSpecialist from Pretoria (South Africa) has carried out a research project with Stellenbosch University to combat salmonella in the South African chicken industry. In this R&D project, a trial was conducted on 14 million chickens, using Micreos Food Safety's PhageGuard S against salmonella. And with success. PhageSpecialist will market this product in South Africa with support from Micreos. Oost NL, together with the Dutch embassy in South Africa, brought the parties together.
With PhageGuard, Micreos has developed a product that contributes to safer food production. PhageGuard works on the basis of bacteriophages. As a natural enemy of bacteria, bacteriophages kill salmonella and listeria, for example, but leave good bacteria alone. This makes bacteriophages an attractive and natural alternative to other pesticides.
With 1.2 billion chickens South Africa has a large potential market. In recent months, the parties involved PhageSpecialist, Stellenbosch University and Micreos Food Safety carried out a research project. The R&D project showed that the use of PhageGuard has significantly reduced salmonella contamination in the chicken industry in South Africa. This project was initiated during a trade mission organized by Oost NL in 2017 and is the result of the efforts of Oost NL, the NFIA and the Dutch embassy. The RVO provided a subsidy to the R&D project.
Micreos develops antibacterial products based on phages and their endolysins. With their award-winning products, Micreos are recognized as the leader in their field. Oost NL is a shareholder of Micreos.
