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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Poultry Microbiological Safety and Processing Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #324456
Title: Better Campylobacter Detection: Furthering our understanding of Campylobacter ecology in poultry

Author
item Cox Jr, Nelson
item Cosby, Douglas
item Berrang, Mark
item BIGGS, R - Tegel Foods Ltd
item LAMMERDING, A - Aml Consulting
item WILSON, J - University Of Georgia
item RICHARDSON, L - Coca-Cola Company

Submitted to: WATT Poultry USA
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/25/2015
Publication Date: 1/1/2016
Citation: Cox Jr, N.A., Cosby, D.E., Berrang, M.E., Biggs, R., Lammerding, A.M., Wilson, J.L., Richardson, L.J. 2016. Better Campylobacter Detection: Furthering our understanding of Campylobacter ecology in poultry. WATT Poultry USA. 16:42-44.

Interpretive Summary: none

Technical Abstract: Campylobacter is an important human pathogen and consumption of undercooked poultry has been linked to significant human illnesses. To reduce human illness, intervention strategies targeting Campylobacter reduction in poultry are in development. For more than a decade, there has been an ongoing national and international controversy about whether Campylobacter can pass from one generation of poultry to the next via the fertile egg. We recognize that there are numerous sources of Campylobacter entry into flocks of commercial poultry (including egg transmission), yet the environment is often cited as the only source. Negative dry-stressed samples at 6 and 24 h post inoculation were administered orally and intracloacally to day-of-age chicks. Seven days post inoculation, the chicks ceca were analyzed for marker strains. This is the first study to use the intracloacal route of chicks to determine viability. Improvements in cultural laboratory methods continue to advance our knowledge of the ecology of Campylobacter, and in the not-so-distant future, egg passage will not be a subject continuously debated but will be embraced, thus allowing for the development and implementation of more effective intervention strategies.