Craig Billington

The focus of Craig’s work is the detection and control of bacterial pathogens in foods, food processing, livestock and the environment. Microorganisms of main interest include Listeria, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Campylobacter and Legionella. The key tools he uses are microbiology, biocontrol, molecular and structural biology, genomics/metagenomics, genetics, food/animal/water science and biopolymers. An area of longstanding interest is in developing biotechnologies for control of bacterial pathogens: these include bacteriophages, bacteriocins, enzymes, bioextracts, bionanotechnology, and active packaging. He also has an interest in combating antimicrobial resistance in healthcare. New methods, especially rapid methods, for pathogen detection are a key focus. He works on developing biosensors to detect pathogens in premises and molecular tools to detect and identify pathogens in the community. He has a general interest in the molecular biology, genetics, genomics and metagenomics of bacterial pathogens, especially those associated with foods, and in methods for authenticity and traceability of foods. The third main area of his work is modelling pathogen behaviour in water systems. This includes developing pathogen tracers for tracking sources of pollution in natural water systems and developing mimics for pathogens in engineered water systems. This work will lead to the development of new mitigations and pollution tracking tools. Since 2022, he has been the Director of the New Zealand China Food Protection Network and is currently President of the New Zealand Association for Food Protection which is an affiliate of the International Association for Food Protection.