Technical Abstract: Food-borne pathogenic bacteria that inhabit the gut of food animals cause millions of human illnesses in the U.S. each year. Although slaughter plants do an excellent job in reducing food-borne pathogenic bacteria populations on carcasses before they enter the human food chain the plants cannot completely eliminate the flood of potential pathogens entering the abattoir. Also, in-plant pathogen reduction strategies do nothing to reduce pathogens entering the environment on farms, via water runoff from farms and feedlots in recreational waters, in contaminated drinking water, or from direct animal contact in petting zoos. Therefore, several intervention strategies have been devised to reduce food borne pathogenic bacteria populations in the gut of animals on the farm before they enter the slaughter plant. These include such widely varied techniques as vaccinating animals against food borne pathogenic bacteria, the utilization of a mixed bacterial population to prevent colonization by pathogens, employing bacterial viruses to specifically reduce existing pathogen populations, using novel chemical methods, and/or the use of non-traditional antimicrobials to decrease or eliminate pathogens.