Antimicrobial resistance is a growing public health concern as foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella become less responsive to commonly used antibiotics. While Salmonella contamination is often linked to poultry and eggs, an increasing number of outbreaks have been associated with contaminated pet food. Pets can carry Salmonella without showing symptoms and shed the bacterium, creating a risk of transmission to humans, particularly young children, elderly individuals, and immunocompromised populations. 

To discover bacteriociocin activity from a variety of sources a collection of laboratory and environmentally derived Salmonella strains were screened for production and susceptibility to bacteriocin-based inhibition. Environmental isolation was performed using fecal samples from turtles and chickens using detailed methods. Colonies determined by isolation agar to be Salmonella were isolated, purified, archived, and prepared for further analysis. Preliminary spot assay screening using the purified bacteriocin nisin showed inhibition in 6 of 16 strains, indicating variability in sensitivity across isolates.