SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NC1202 : Enteric Diseases of Food Animals: Enhanced Prevention, Control and Food Safety
- Period Covered: 10/01/2024 to 09/30/2025
- Date of Report: 03/17/2026
- Annual Meeting Dates: 01/17/2026 to 01/17/2026
Participants
Annual Meeting Participants (n = 85): • In-person (n = 82): Khaled Abdelaziz, Raghavendra Amachawadi, Jennifer Auchtung, Babafela Awosile, Berit Bangoura, Lisa Bielke, Bledar Bisha, Thomas Bobik, Matthew Bradley, David Bradshaw, Kyeong-OK Chang, Yung-Fu Chang, Mohamed Donia, Peixin Fan, Wenjuan Fang, Yewande Fasina, Jordan Gebhardt, Brian Geisbrecht, Yosra Helmy, Maged Hemida, Yong-Su Jin, Radhey Kaushik, Scott Kenney, Jessica Kincade, Gizem Levent, Wenli Li, Xiang Li, Vinicius Lima, Jun Lin, Yanhong Liu, Torey Looft, Linda Mansfield, Audrey McElroy, Melha Mellata, Rajeev Mishra, Melissa Monson, Shafeekh Muyyarikkandy, TG Nagaraja, Hemant Naikare, Xiaoyu Niu, Tomi Obe, Samson Oladokun, Asit Pattnaik, Kurt Piepenbrink, Talita Pilar Resende, Gireesh Rajashekara, Sheela Ramamoorthy, Donald Reynolds, Jatna Rivas Zarete, Orhan Sahin, Linda Saif, Yongming Sang, Devendra Shah, Waseem Shaukat, Ruizhong Shen, Elizabeth Shepherd, Smriti Shringi, Xiaolun Sun, Ning-Chieh Twu, Fabio Vannucci, Anastasia Vlasova, Qiuhong Wang, Kush Kumar Yadav, Lu Yen, Dongwan Yoo, Ramon Alejandro Zegpi Lagos, Qijing Zhang, Glenn Zhang, Weiping Zhang, Zhengguo Xiao, Caleb Skow, Indria Kuora, Thamor Alanazi, David Yeboah, Santosh Dhakal, Thad Deiss, Samar Algehani, Mayasim Abozahrah, Subash Mainali, Janashit Shrestha, Jonathan Rodrigues, Farhan Anwar • Remote (n = 3): Yuhua Farnell, Peixin Fan, George Liu • These investigators came from at least 37 different institutions including: Clemson U, Colorado State U, Cornell U, Iowa State U, Kansas State U, Long Island U, Merk Animal Health, Michigan State U, Mississippi State U, NC A&T State U, NC State U, North Dakota State U, Ohio State U, Oklahoma State U, South Dakota State U, Tennessee State U, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Tuskegee U, UC Davis, U of Arkansas, U. Calgary, U of Delaware, U of Florida, U of Hawaii, U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, U of Kentucky, U of Maryland, U of Minnesota, U of Nebraska-Lincoln, U of Tennessee, U of WI-Madison, U of Wyoming, U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, USDA Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, USDA National Animal Disease Center, and Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education.
Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting (8:30 am - 4:00 pm on January 17, 2026):
• Welcome: Drs. Glenn Zhang (Chair)
• Self-introductions: Onsite and remote attendees
• Opening remarks: Dr. Milena Saqui-Salces (Administrative Advisor; Remote)
• Keynote Address: An Unconventional Journey in Microbiological Research: A Personal Reflection (Dr. Qijing Zhang, Iowa State University)
• Business meeting-Discussed budget (Income $8,397.23 and expenses $3,337.46). Student awards: 34 presentations in 2026; 6 awards were given. We voted on NC1202 by-laws and elected new chair and secretary. Other topics included ways to strengthen collaborations within the group and ideas for fundraising. The group would like to increase the number of student awards. The group is seeking to set a time for a semi-annual, virtual meeting that will help facilitate collaborations and recruit new members.
• Progress reports and presentations: 8 speakers gave 15-minute research presentations and/or stations reports. Session ended with a 30-minute group discussion prior to adjourning.
Accomplishments
Accomplishments:
1. Updated an NC1202 expertise database to facilitate interinstitutional collaborative efforts focused on food animal enteric diseases. Link: NC1202 Expert Database
2. Had a significant increase in participants compared to last year, with a 70% increase.
3. Awarded six graduate students for their oral or poster presentations from a total of 34 entries during the annual meeting:
•David Francis Award (1st Place - $500): I. Tobin, Oklahoma State Univ.
•David Francis Award (2nd Place - $300): S. Mainali, Univ. of Arkansas.
•David Francis Award (3rd Place - $200): C. Skow, Iowa State Univ.
•Lynn Joens Memorial Award (1st Place - $500): J. Joseph, Univ. of Delaware.
•Lynn Joens Memorial Award (2nd Place - $300): K. H. Hazlett, Texas A&M Univ.
•Lynn Joens Memorial Award (3rd Place - $200): N. M. Souza, Boise State Univ.
4. Trained > 20 students, stakeholders, and government entities including biosecurity audits for Campylobacter hepaticus in poultry farms and educated 21 North Carolina State officials on egg and poultry industry practices while conducting biosecurity audits.
5. Researchers from several institute engaged in discussion of research interests and potential collaborative project through exchange of laboratory protocol, bacterial strains and animal tissue samples.
6. Identified bacterial species in colostrum, such as Streptococcus uberis, that showed strong correlations with specific colostrum metabolites, as well as species (e.g., Streptococcus thermophilus and Mediterraneibacter gnavus) capable of persisting in the early gut microbiota of calves.
7. Developed a fast and easy reverse genetics system enabling manipulation of the swine arterivirus porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus genome.
8. Established a reverse genetics system for the canine coronavirus (CCoV) strain CCoV-HuPn-2018 isolated in the lab from a human patient with pneumonia.
9. Identified several small-molecule compounds and commensal bacteria with the capacity to alleviate necrotic enteritis in chickens.
10. Cloned, expressed, and in vitro evaluated Clostridium perfringens multiple fusion antigen (MEFA) vaccines to prevent chicken necrotic enteritis, an emerging and costly enteric diseases in poultry industry.
11. Developed porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) live attenuated vaccines (LAV) that are resistant to revert to virulence or recombine with wildtype PEDV.
12. Developed a microbiota-metabolized bile acids approach to prevent chicken necrotic enteritis or Campylobacter jejuni infection in chickens.
13. Developed different alternatives to antibiotics approaches to improve animal growth performance & feed efficiency and enhance gut health against enteric bacterial pathogens.
14. Discovered and characterized several lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains with strong acid and bile tolerance, adherence ability, and the capacity to inhibit Salmonella and antimicrobial-resistant E. coli.
15. Developed and validated an assay to identify a protease, a host enzyme essential for virus replication
16. Developed a chicken embryo model as a scalable platform to study maternal hyperglycemia and gut barrier dysfunction.
17. Established avian trachea organoid models for HAPI study, and avian liver ductal organoid model for spotty liver disease.
18. Determined the effects of different Cu sources and dietary inclusions levels on growth performance and bioavailability of broilers challenged with Eimeria.
19. Elucidated inclusion levels for a novel probiotic in commercial broiler diets to promote intestinal health.
Impacts
- This project has significant impact on disseminating knowledge and expertise through training, synergistic interaction and education to stakeholders and government entities. The impact of our work can be illustrated in the following: 1) We have trained > 20 graduate/undergraduate students and postdocs in a range of techniques critical to maintaining and improving animal health and food productivity. 2) multiple researchers in our consortium have engaged directly with stakeholders and government entities to enhance public understanding of their industries and the biosecurity measures needed to prevent disease introduction and spread in food production animals; and 3) we have recruited new participants with 70% increase compared to last year, highlights the broad and growing impact of our consortium. We expect this trend to continue; and 4) We have established expertise database that facilitates NC1202 members to identify potentially synergistic or unique experts necessary for more productive group research efforts. This updated list is open to the public, further enabling collaboration between members of NC1202 and the greater research community.
- Our work has led to novel and effective strategies for disease prevention and intervention. All these developments contributed to safe and sustainable food animal production that help US producers reduce production cost and providing affordable, safe and nutritious food to US consumers. These developments are highlighted in the following areas: 1) Development of safe and effective vaccines for food animals. These newly developed vaccines would reduce morbidity and mortality rates of food animals; 2) Identification and development of antibiotic free technologies to improve animal health and ensure food safety. For example, the small-molecule compounds and commensal bacteria capable of alleviating necrotic enteritis; probiotic strains with strong inhibition of Salmonella Typhimurium and antibiotic-resistant E. coli. 3) findings on copper sources and novel probiotics will help establish science-based recommendations for feed additives in commercial broiler diets. This work can lead to improved intestinal health and growth performance in broilers, promoting more efficient and sustainable poultry production.
- Our work has established novel, in vitro models enabling scalable platforms for multidisciplinary collaboration. These models will benefit broader research communities that are interested in studying enteric pathogens in vitro more efficiently. The establishment of these models will ultimately benefit US producers and One Health initiative through timely delivery of science-driven knowledge and information aimed at better disease control and prevention. These in vitro models include the following: 1) the chicken embryo gestational diabetes model enables testing of gut barrier–focused interventions, strengthening One Health research connections between metabolic disease, microbiome health, and early life development. 2) The avian trachea and liver organoid models create a new platform to study significant poultry diseases like Avian Influenza and spotty liver disease.
Grants, Contracts & Other Resources Obtained
Grants and Contracts (Only federal grants listed; Names in bold denote the NC1202 participants; 10 grants totaling $12,245,137):
1. Zhang, W, Silvera, P and Sack, DA. NIH. Development of MecVax, a cross-protective subunit vaccine for ETEC. R01AI177144-01. 6/1/2023 – 5/30/2028. $5,643,881
2. Sack DA and Zhang W. NIH. A cross-protective multivalent vaccine for Shigella and ETEC. R01AI175214-01. 3/6/2023 – 2/29/2028. $3,921,648
3. Yoo, D. and Wang, Q. USDA NIFA, Recombination-negative, immune-enhanced, and clinically attenuated PRRSV as a vaccine platform. 04/2023-03/2027. $650,000.
4. Yoo D. USDA NIFA, Hatch and Section 1433-Animal Health and Disease Research Funds, A novel reverse genetics system for PRRS virus. 02/15/2025-09/30/26. $12,491.
5. Jumper, W, Harvey, K, Fan, P, and Magnin, G. USDA/NIFA. Antimicrobial stewardship in beef production: Impacts of chlortetracycline exposure to beef cows on pasture. Award No. 2025-68015-44819. 08/2025-07/2027. $221,322
6. Kim Y and Zhang G. NIH–NIDDK. The Role of Cannabinoid 1 Receptor in Age-Associated Diseases. Award no. R15DK144838. 09/12/2025 – 08/31/2028. $551,696.
7. Sang Y, Nahashon S and Miller, L. USDA/NIFA. Non-Coding Regulatory RNA as Epigenetic and Antiviral Biomarkers in Porcine Macrophages. 2025-38821-45500. 04/01/2025- 03/31/2028. $599,688.00
8. Farnell, YF. Organoid-Based HPAI Viability Detection from Food Relevant Samples. USDA-ARS. $318,000.
9. Farnell, YF. Establishment and Characterization of Liver Organoids from Layer Chickens. USDA-ARS. $112,611.
10. Saqui-Salces, M. and Gebhart, C. USDA/NIFA. Pathogenesis of Lawsonia intracellularis infection. 7/1/21 to 6/30/2025. $500,000.