Overview

• University of Leicester’s Becky Mayer Centre is collecting droppings from exotic zoo animals to isolate bacteriophages that target bacteria.
• Dr Andrew Millard says phages thrive where bacteria are abundant, making animal waste a prime source for discovery.
• The team is building a 10,000‑sample biobank over the next two years to accelerate therapy research against drug‑resistant infections, a threat projected to kill up to 10 million people a year by 2050 without new options.
• West Midlands Safari Park and Dudley Zoo are supplying regular samples, with keepers and conservation staff backing the project.
• The researchers have given evidence to a House of Commons science inquiry, and phages are now referenced in the UK government’s five‑year AMR action plan.