Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #198692
Title: DIETARY STRATEGIES TO REDUCE FOODBORNE PATHOGENS IN PIGS

Author
item Callaway, Todd
item Edrington, Thomas
item Genovese, Kenneth - Ken
item Harvey, Roger
item Anderson, Robin
item Nisbet, David

Submitted to: Trade Journal Publication
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/13/2006
Publication Date: 11/20/2006
Citation: Callaway, T.R., Edrington, T.S., Genovese, K.J., Harvey, R.B., Anderson, R.C., Nisbet, D.J. 2006. Dietary strategies to reduce foodborne pathogens in pigs. www.tres3.com. Available: http://www.3tres3.com/nutricion/ficha.php?id=1684&title=Nutrici%F3n%3A+Estrategias+diet%E9ticas+para+prevenir+enfermedades+intestinales+en+los+cerdos.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Swine can carry foodborne pathogenic bacteria that cause human illness, most notably Salmonella. Slaughter facilities in the U.S. and EU reduce the horizontal and vertical spread of pathogens on carcasses and finished products. However, we can enhance the effectiveness of the post-slaughter treatments by reducing the food-borne pathogens that enter the abattoir. Unfortunately, food-borne pathogens that cause human illnesses often do not cause illness in swine, making detection and elimination of these pathogens very difficult. All swine producers want to produce a safe product. However, pathogen reduction comes at a cost, and unless a pathogen-reduction strategy improves animal health or profitability, then producers using these techniques are disadvantaged. Therefore, if we can treat swine through dietary interventions, we can reduce pathogen shedding without adding new steps for producers. Several dietary strategies have been suggested to reduce intestinal populations of food-borne pathogens in swine. In general, these can be grouped into pathogen-killing and competition-elimination strategies. Pathogen-killing strategies try to specifically kill the pathogenic bacteria, while competition-elimination strategies use other bacteria or yeast populations to eliminate pathogens by reducing their role in the gut ecology.