Ismaïl Fliss, full professor in the Department of Food Science at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and research member at INAF, has been awarded major funding ($1.6 million) under the Innovet AMR II program, a highly competitive international funding program of the International Development Research Centre. This three-year project (2024-2027) will be carried out in collaboration with the Tunis Institut Supérieur des Sciences Biologiques Appliquées and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. It also involves the National School of Veterinary Medicine in Tunis and La Rioja University in Spain.

Professor Fliss has developed expertise in the production, using lactic acid bacteria, of antibacterial and antifungal compounds, including bacteriocins, and their use as alternatives to antibiotics in the food and veterinary sectors. This project aims to develop eco-responsible and economically viable industrial processes for the production of various bacteriocins. It also aims to assess the potential of these bacteriocins as a natural alternative to antibiotics in industrial poultry production. This project therefore tackles a topical issue that is causing considerable concern in the medical and veterinary sectors. According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance will be one of the top 10 public health problems to tackle in 2019. Bacteriocins, which are small, natural antimicrobial molecules, have the advantage of a more specific spectrum of action, unlike antibiotics, which are often broad-spectrum, destroying a whole range of intestinal bacteria, both good and bad. Bacteriocins are therefore proposed as one of the most promising alternatives for replacing antibiotics in industrial poultry farming.