Prof Robert Bragg and his research team from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at the UFS are regarded as world leaders in their area of research. Prof Bragg is a C-rated NRF researcher.

In a major breakthrough, his team have been able to produce a vaccine against a virus which cannot be cultured. The technology is now used as a model for their other vaccine development projects. His main research focuses on control of diseases, mostly in the veterinary field.

His long-standing and current research areas focus on infectious coryza caused by the bacterium Avibacterium paragallinarum which occurs in poultry, disease control in a post-antibiotic era and vaccine development. They are assisting vaccine producers in South Africa, India and Israel to improve the formulation of vaccines, and are investigating variant field isolates from countries in South and Central America. Resistance to disinfectants are also being investigated.

The other research area in which the group is active is the search for disease control options in a post-antibiotic era. He has been working towards this for many years and the focus has been on improved biosecurity and the development of a continual disinfection programme in poultry. This work was based on a novel disinfectant which was produced by a South African company based in Stellenbosch. This was the first use worldwide of a disinfectant to control disease in poultry production. It was demonstrated that this continual disinfection programme could stop serious poultry diseases such as Newcastle disease virus and Avian influenza, another current “hot topic”. This work resulted in the registration of a disinfectant with label claims for the control of Newcastle disease virus. This was another “first” for a disinfectant. This continual disinfection programme will be the only viable solution to control bacterial diseases in poultry production in a post-antibiotic era.

His main research activity is on the control of diseases in birds (mostly poultry) and in efforts to improve vaccination efficacy, particularly for the often neglected small-scale farmer.