Antibiotic-associated pathogens: the use of animal models to explore disease and alternative therapeutics

This thesis focused on the study of antibiotic-resistant disease-causing bacteria in the gut, exploring how they cause gut damage, and how they can be displaced without antibiotics. The prevalence of these bacteria in the gut is often impacted by antibiotic use, which creates imbalance by disrupting normal flora, and promoting antibiotic resistance. Using animal models of infection and gut colonisation, this thesis showed how a range of disease-causing bacteria can take advantage of this imbalance to cause disease, and how antibiotic resistant bacteria that cause urinary tract infections can be removed from the gut using a colostrum-based therapy.