Effectiveness and Efficiency of Controlling Campylobacter on Broiler Chicken Meat

Abstract

Campylobacter bacteria are an important cause of foodborne infections. We estimated the potential costs and benefits of a large number of possible interventions to decrease human exposure to Campylobacter by consumption of chicken meat, which accounts for 20-40% of all cases of human campylobacteriosis in the Netherlands. For this purpose, a farm-to-fork risk assessment model was combined with economic analysis and epidemiological data. Reduction of contamination at broiler farms could be efficient in theory. However, it is unclear which hygienic measures need to be taken and the costs can be very high. The experimental treatment of colonized broiler flocks with bacteriophages has proven to be effective and could also be cost efficient, if confirmed in practice. Since a major decrease of infections at the broiler farm is not expected in the short term, additional measures in the processing plant were also considered. At this moment, guaranteed Campylobacter-free chicken meat at the retail level is not realistic. The most promising interventions in the processing plant are limiting fecal leakage during processing and separation of contaminated and noncontaminated flocks (scheduling), followed by decontamination of the contaminated flock. New (faster and more sensitive) test methods to detect Campylobacter colonization in broilers flocks are a prerequisite for successful scheduling scenarios. Other methods to decrease the contamination of meat of colonized flocks such as freezing and heat treatment are more expensive and/or less effective than chemical decontamination.

Time of Entry of Salmonella and Campylobacter into the Turkey Brooder House

“…Campylobacter counts in chicken feces were comparable at both sampling dates (5 log 10 colony-forming units (CFU) per gram), despite on-farm pathogen reduction efforts introduced during this period. This concurs with the findings of the CARMA project that, although theoretically possible, attaining Campylobacter-free birds is unrealistic in the short-term (Havelaar et al 2007). In contrast, the levels of Campylobacter on broiler carcasses exiting the chiller in 2001 (3.03 log 10 CFU/g) were 1 log lower than 1995 estimates (4.11 log 10 CFU/g), indicating the effectiveness of HACCP interventions during processing (Stern and Robach 2003).…”

“…The Dutch Campylobacter Risk Management and Assessment (CARMA) project appraises the cost of campylobacteriosis at 21 million Euros annually with 20-40% of cases attributed to contaminated poultry (Havelaar et al 2007). In the United States, foodborne campylobacteriosis follows infection with C. jejuni (∼90% of cases) and Campylobacter coli (∼5% of cases) together causing two million human cases accounting for ∼$1.2 billion in productivity losses annually (Buzby and Roberts 1997;http://www.ers.usda.…”

Consumer acceptability of interventions to reduce Campylobacter in the poultry food chain

“…There has been evidence reported that irradiation and chemical wash were effective in minimising Campylobacter on chicken meat. For example, irradiation can reduce Campylobacter by 20.8 log (cfu/carcass), (Havelaar et al., 2007) and chemical wash (e.g. application of chlorine in spin chillers at 35 ppm) has been a major tool in reducing human campylobacteriosis in New Zealand (New Zealand Food Safety Authority, 2009).…”

“…Investigation into vaccination of chickens provided evidence of inconsistent success in reducing Campylobacter (Hermans et al., 2011). Better on-farm hygiene practices have been reported to lower the risk of Campylobacter colonisation by 95% (Havelaar et al., 2007). …”

“…Alternative practices to antibiotic additives in broiler feed currently being investigated are probiotics (Gaggìa, Mattarelli & Biavati, 2010), bacteriocins (Svetoch & Stern, 2010), bacteriophage (Monk, Rees, Barrow, Hagens & Harper, 2010) and vaccination (De Zoete, van Putten & Wagenaar, 2007). Interventions at the slaughter stage include steaming, forced air chill, electrolysed oxidising water as a disinfectant agent (Wassenaar, 2011), chemical wash (Keener, Bashor, Curtis, Sheldon & Kathariou, 2004), crust freezing (Rosenquist et al., 2009) and irradiation (Havelaar et al., 2007). In the home, good hygiene is important to avoid cross contamination and chicken meat should be cooked properly to prevent consumption of potentially harmful food.…”