Lactic Acid Bacteria – A Promising Tool for Controlling Chicken Campylobacter Infection

Abstract

Since 2005, campylobacteriosis has been the most common zoonotic disease in Europe. The main reservoir of pathogenic Campylobacter strains is broilers, which makes raw and undercooked poultry meat two major sources of disease. Infection in chicken flocks is most often asymptomatic, despite a high level of colonization reaching 106–109cfu/g in animal ceca. It is widely believed that controlling the level of colonization of the birds’ digestive tract by pathogenic strains is a good way to increase food safety. Many treatments have been proposed to combat or at least reduce the level of colonization in animals reservoirs: probiotics, bacteriophages, vaccines, and anti-Campylobacter bacteriocins. This review focuses on the effects of Campylobacter infection on the chicken microbiome and colonization control strategies using probiotics (mostly lactic acid bacteria, LAB), which are live microorganisms included in the diet of animals as feed additives or supplements. Probiotics are not only an alternative to antibiotics, which were used for years as animal growth promoters, but they also constitute an effective protective barrier against excessive colonization of the digestive system by pathogenic bacteria, including Campylobacter. Moreover, one of the many beneficial functions of probiotics is the ability to manipulate the host’s microbiota. Recently, there have also been some promising attempts to use lactic acid bacteria as a delivery system of oral vaccine against Campylobacter. Recombinant LAB strains induce primarily a mucosal immune response against foreign antigens, accompanied by at most a low-level immune response against carrier strains. Since the main barrier against the invasion of pathogens in the gastrointestinal tract is the intestinal mucosal membrane, the development of effective oral vaccines to protect animals against enteric infection is very reasonable.

Selected Livestock-Associated Zoonoses as a Growing Challenge for Public Health

“…Campylobacter strains are widely distributed in nature and gastrointestinal tracts of the majority of warm-blooded animals, with birds, cattle, and pigs being the main reservoir of the pathogenic germs of zoonotic potential [ 89 ]. These ubiquitous bacteria are transmitted from animals to humans directly or via the food chain by raw and undercooked poultry meat, as broilers may be asymptomatic carriers of pathogenic Campylobacter strains [ 88 , 91 ]. In poultry, pathogens spread through an oral–fecal route or by vertical transmission.…”

“…Infected people may experience additional complications, such as IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease), reactive arthritis, or neuropathies (i.e., Guillain-Barré syndrome). A life-threatening infection can affect those with a weakened immune system [ 6 , 91 ]. Most humans affected by campylobacteriosis showed symptoms such as watery or bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, headache, and vomiting [ 93 ].…”

“…Outside of UE borders, many cases were recorded in Turkey, Thailand, and Morocco [ 5 ]. Many Campylobacter infections are undiagnosed or unreported, thus the total number of them is underestimated [ 6 , 91 ]. The prevalence of campylobacteriosis in humans remained relatively stable from 2015 to 2019 [ 5 ].…”

“…The importance of the measures undertaken is great as there is no effective critical control point in processing raw poultry meat [ 92 ]. Nonetheless, awareness should be raised on increasing antimicrobial resistance as well as on the prevalence of pathogenic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract induced by antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) administered to poultry [ 91 ]. Alternatives include the use of probiotics, plant-based antimicrobials, metal oxide nanoparticles, bacterial synergism, or active packaging to maintain the best possible product freshness and quality [ 94 ].…”

Rapid Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION Sequencing Workflow for Campylobacter jejuni Identification in Broilers on Site—A Proof-of-Concept Study

“…Since 2005, Campylobacter has been the most commonly diagnosed zoonotic pathogen in the European Union (EU), and one of the major causes of foodborne illness worldwide [ 1 , 2 ]. Poultry is considered the main reservoir of the bacteria, with the consumption of contaminated and/or inadequately prepared poultry products as the main source of outbreaks in humans [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]. Thus, in January 2018, the EU established Regulation (EC) No 1495/2017, to set a process hygiene criterion for Campylobacter control at slaughterhouses, and began to monitor the bacterial burden, with the limit of 1000 CFU/g of neck skin.…”