September 1, 2008
A US$939,220 grant could soon help Kansas State University discover the connection between feeding DDGS and E. coli.
The National Research Initiative in Food Safety grant was awarded to a research project headed by Nagaraja, a distinguished professor of microbiology.
Nagaraja said the issue of meat safety is receiving full attention from both researchers and the meat industry and is being addressed.
The grant would help the researchers look at novel ways to mitigate the potential risks of feeding DDGS, Nagaraja said.
The research team will look at ways to reduce the amount of E. coli O157:H7 present, such as administering a probiotic, an experimental vaccine and feeding brown seaweed, a plant shown to have an effect in reducing E. coli O157:H7 prevalence in cattle.
In addition, they also will study whether feeding varied amounts of the distillers' grain or making it dry or wet would affect the presence of the bacteria in cattle feces.