Farm-Level Practices to Reduce Campylobacter Prevalence in Commercial Turkeys

Non-Technical Summary: <BR>Campylobacter is a major cause of acute human gastroenteritis (with potentially severe sequelae) in the United States, and consumption of contaminated poultry is a leading risk factor for infection. Campylobacter readily colonizes the intestines of chickens and turkeys, and contaminates poultry meat. A major knowledge gap concerns the farm practices and transmission routes that place flocks at enhanced risk for Campylobacter, or, conversely, have protective effects. The long-term goal of our research is to identify and characterize routes and mechanisms of transmission of Campylobacter to turkeys, a major but understudied reservoir for this pathogen. This will be necessary for targeted approaches to prevent colonization of turkeys pre-harvest, thus reducing contamination of turkey meat. To contribute to this long-term goal, the following four specific objectives will be pursued in the current project: (1), Identify farm-level practices that contribute to either consistently low or consistently high prevalence of Campylobacter in commercial turkey flocks pre-harvest; (2), Monitor Campylobacter in turkey flocks with low or high prevalence throughout slaughter and processing in commercial processing plants; (3), Guided by farm audit and laboratory data, develop training and outreach materials for company veterinarians, farmers, flock technicians and farm workers, and educational material for students; (4), Evaluate the impact of the training, outreach and educational components of the project on Campylobacter reductions in turkeys and on awareness of Campylobacter as a poultry-associated foodborne pathogen. The ultimate purpose of the project is to fill knowledge gaps about pathogen source and persistence in poultry. <P> Approach: <BR> The project will initially investigate farm-level practices that impact Campylobacter prevalence in turkeys pre-harvest (fecal droppings) as well as at the processing plant (post-evisceration, pre-chill and post-chill). Quantitative levels of Campylobacter will be determined . We will determine species, antimicrobial susceptibility profile, and genotypes) of campylobacters from the samples. Since company veterinarians, farmers (growers), flock technicians and workers have critical impact in decision-making and practices at the farms, we will work closely with these stakeholders to discuss Campylobacter colonization risk practices identified in the project and to implement relevant training and outreach. Outreach materials and hands-on demonstrations tailor-made to farms with specific risk practices will be made available during visits to their farms and in workshops led by Area Extension Agents. Materials will be also made available to all other turkey farmers and all extension offices, and on the website to be created as part of the project. Visits to the individual farms will be done by the Area Extension Agent, who has direct knowledge of the farms and the communities involved. During these scheduled visits specific risk practices will be pointed out and possible mitigations that could be applied during the subsequent flock cycles will be demonstrated. The Area Extension Agent will also provide training sessions to groups of growers sharing common practices associated with increased risk for Campylobacter. For evaluation of project effectiveness, during the early stages the focus will be on monitoring and formative evaluation efforts. Program records will be used to assess whether key activities and interventions are implemented as intended (e.g., are targets enrolling in workshops) and qualitative methods (e.g., interviews) will be used to collect information from stakeholders/targets for the purpose of refining and improving the outreach and extension activities. Near the end of the project, the emphasis will shift to impact evaluation. That is, more structured and quantitative methods (e.g., questionnaires) with appropriate controls will be used to assess the effectiveness of the outreach and extension activities. Three main sets of data will be employed for the evaluation: (i) Evaluations (surveys) administered after each training session; (ii) GAPS-like farm audit data pre- and post- the training materials and outreach and (iii) laboratory data pre-harvest and at the processing plant, pre- and post- the training materials and outreach.