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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fayetteville, Arkansas » Poultry Production and Product Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #339560
Research Project: Antibiotic Alternatives for Controlling Foodborne Pathogens and Disease in Poultry

Location: Poultry Production and Product Safety Research

Title: Phytochemicals reduce biofilm formation and inactivates mature biofilm of Campylobacter jejuni

Author
item WAGLE, BASANTA - University Of Arkansas
item UPADHYAY, ABHINAV - University Of Arkansas
item ARSI, KOMALA - University Of Arkansas
item UPADHYAY, INDU - University Of Arkansas
item SHRESHTA, SANDIP - University Of Arkansas
item VENTITANARAYANAN, KUMAR - University Of Connecticut
item Donoghue, Ann - Annie
item DONOGHUE, DAN - University Of Arkansas

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2017
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Campylobacter jejuni is the leading cause of human foodborne illness globally, and is strongly linked with the consumption of contaminated poultry products. However, little is known about the persistence of C. jejuni in the poultry processing environment. Several studies have shown that C. jejuni can form sanitizer tolerant biofilms but limited research has been conducted to develop control strategies against C. jejuni associated biofilms. This study investigated the efficacy of three GRAS status phytochemicals namely, eugenol (EG), carvacrol (CR) and trans-cinnamaldehyde (TC) in inhibiting C. jejuni biofilm formation and inactivating mature biofilm at 20 or 37C. For the inhibition study, C. jejuni 11168 was grown either in the presence or absence (control) of sub-inhibitory concentrations of EG (0.01%), CR (0.002%), TC (0.01%) for 72 h. The effect of phytochemicals on biofilm formation was quantified at 24, 48 and 72 h by triphenyl tetrazolium chloride staining. For the inactivation study, C. jejuni biofilms developed at 20 or 37C for 48 h were exposed to the phytochemicals (0, 0.25, 0.5, or 1%) for 1, 5, or 10 min, and surviving C. jejuni in the biofilm were enumerated. In addition, the effect of phytochemicals on the expression of genes critical for biofilm formation was evaluated using real-time quantitative PCR. All the studies were conducted three times with duplicate samples. The data were analyzed by the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS.All phytochemicals reduced C. jejuni biofilm formation as well as inactivated mature biofilm at both temperatures (P<0.05). The highest dose (1%) of each phytochemical rapidly inactivated biofilm within 1 min to below detection (>7 Log reductions) and the lowest dose (0.25%) reduced counts significantly (appoximately 5 Log CFU/ml) when treated for 10 min at 20C. Moreover, qPCR revealed that the genes encoding motility (flaA, flaB) were down regulated by all phytochemicals (P<0.05). EG also down regulated quorum sensing (luxS) and cell binding (peb4) genes. Results suggest that EG, CR, TC could be used as natural disinfectants for controlling C. jejuni biofilm. Studies testing the efficacy of aforementioned compounds on common meat processing surfaces (steel, rubber) and visualizing the architecture of biofilm using electron microscopy are currently underway.