UJ Graduation Programme 13 May 2020 17h00

Pieterse, Anton (DTech)

Anton Pieterse is the laboratory manager at the Water and Health Research Centre. He is a University of Stellenbosch alumnus who undertook a Master’s degree in Microbiology. After working at the Stellenbosch medical school, assisting research in early earth chemistry, drug delivery systems and anti-retroviral research, he undertook his doctorate at the Water and Health Research Centre. In the lead up to attending an international conference he participated in and completed a doctoral course in bio-tracing. Anton Pieterse has co-authored four articles in accredited journals, and presented posters at both national and international conferences. Salmonella is a major cause of disease worldwide, affecting millions of people each year. Animals and their products play an important role in the spread of Salmonella to humans as well as other animals. By preventing the animal from being infected with Salmonella , further spread of this pathogen in especially the food chain can be prevented. The use of molecular biology tools allows for the fast, sensitive and cost- effective way to test animal feed. This study focused on developing a reliable and cost-effective protocol to screen animal feed for the presence of Salmonella for use in developing countries. The method was compared with commercially available real-time PCR kits and achieved comparable results when different feed samples were tested. This method allows for the fast detection of Salmonella in samples and can assist in reducing the introduction of Salmonella into the feed chain in developing countries.

Supervisor: Prof TG Barnard Co-Supervisor: Prof MF Dutton

151

Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker