Campylobacter jejuni: Public health hazards and potential control methods in poultry: a review

Abstract

Certain strains of Campylobacter jejuni are implicated not only in diarrhea in humans, but also in the rare, but more serious Guillain-Barré syndrome, which may be fatal. Since poultry are the major reservoirs of C. jejuni, reducing contamination of poultry meat with this organism will decrease risk to the human consumer. Poultry meat which is contaminated with Campylobacter spp. and other human enteropathogens is safe for human consumption if handled properly while raw, and cooked completely. Recent experimental studies tend to indicate that diet formulations excluding animal proteins and fat may help towards reducing colonization of C. jejuni in the ceca of poultry, but attempts to combine this strategy with other methods including the use of probiotics aimed at competitive exclusion of C. jejuni, or prebiotics, which promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the large intestine, and thereby reduce C. jejuni colonization is worth studying. Whether reduction of C. jejuni by these methods will cause proportionate increase of C. coli, which is emerging as a more drug resistant human pathogen, is not known. Colonization reduction should ideally be combined with innovative approaches at the processing plant to bring down contamination to a negligible level, although presently there is no “acceptable or safe quantitative level” for campylobacters in raw chicken meat.

Effects of direct-fed microbials on growth performance, gut morphometry, and immune characteristics in broiler chickens

“…Because the modulation of gut microflora by dietary DFM in chickens is well-documented (Hariharan et al, 2004;Nava et al, 2005;Yang et al, 2009), the DFM used in this study were selected under the presumption that they act by decreasing the intestinal load of harmful bacteria, thereby promoting gut function, increasing immunity-mediated pathogen protection and nutrient absorption, and enhancing weight gain. In this regard, future studies using broilers fed with less digestible diets, reared under field conditions or exposed to common enteric infections, or both, may delineate a positive effect of dietary DFM on growth performance.…”

Campylobacter spp. as a Foodborne Pathogen: A Review

“…However, the use of pre- and pro-biotics, i.e., complex polysaccharides and strains of lactic acid bacteria, has shown some promise (Hariharan et al, 2004), and could be examined further. Competitive exclusion (Nurmi principle), generally successful for control of salmonellae, has not always been successful for controlling campylobacters (Mead, 2002).…”

Elucidation of colonization time and prevalence of thermophilic Campylobacter species during turkey rearing using multiplex polymerase chain reaction

“…Poultry remains the most important reservoir and source for human infections (van Vliet and Ketley, 2001). The normal body temperature of fowl is 41 to 42°C, which coincides with the optimum growth temperature of thermophilic Campylobacter species (Corry and Atabay, 2001;Engvall, 2001;Petersen et al, 2001;Hariharan et al, 2004). An European food safety authority report (EFSA, 2010) demonstrated that approximately 80% of chicken carcasses of the European Union market are contaminated with Campylobacter, whereas Salmonella was detected in only 16% of chicken carcasses in 22 EU countries.…”