Non Antibiotic Treatments to Reduce Food Borne Pathogens in Poultry

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Food-borne pathogens are responsible for the majority of food poisoning cases in the United States. This research will evaluate feed or water additives (fatty acids) and preselected defined probiotic cultures using an in vitro selection approach in order to reduce enteric foodborne pathogen colonization in poultry. A defined probiotic culture will eliminate the concern of possible pathogens in the culture, and thus speed regulatory approval of these cultures for use by the poultry industry.

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APPROACH: For Objective A, initially, chickens will be dosed with various concentrations (2.5, 5.0, 10 and 20mM) of the fatty acid monocaprin and Campylobacter colonization will be evaluated. Dosages will be adjusted to maximize the efficacy of these compounds. For Objective B, ceca will be collected from healthy adult chickens and bacterial isolates will be tested against Campylobacter or Salmonella using the procedure of Miyamoto and coworkers (2000). Isolates that produced zones of inhibition against either organism will be used to test for in vivo efficacy (Objective C). To accomplish this chicks (n=20 per group) will be treated with the previously identified probiotic candidate bacteria on the day of hatch followed by either Campylobacter or Salmonella challenge post-hatch as previously described (Bielke et al., 2003; Farnell, et al., 2005; Farnell, et al., 2006). Isolates capable of displacing foodborne pathogens will be subjected to determinative bacteriology (National Veterinary Services Laboratory, Ames, IA).

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PROGRESS: 2007/01 TO 2007/12<BR>
OUTPUTS: Bacterial isolates from the enteric contents of healthy chickens were collected and tested against Campylobacter using the procedure of Miyamoto and coworkers (2000). A number of isolates were identified that in vivo efficacy against Campylobacter. Various doses of fatty acids were added to the feed and enteric Campylobacter concentrations were evaluated. Results were presented at national meeting and in publications <BR>PARTICIPANTS: Numerous graduate students worked on these projects with the PI. These students interacted with the PI and participated in designing experiments, developing techniques, conducting both in vitro and in vivo studies, data collection and interpretation, presenting scientific data at professional meeting and writing scientific manuscripts. <BR>TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences are the scientific community, federal regulatory agencies and the poultry industry.
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IMPACT: 2007/01 TO 2007/12<BR>
Progress was made during the last year on this project. Using novel laboratory screening techniques, numerous enteric microflora were screened for ability to out-compete the important food borne pathogen, Campylobacter. These organisms were selected on the basis of efficacy, safety, tolerance to preservation, tolerance to exposure to air, and low cost of production. Follow up testing will be preformed in the coming year to evaluate the efficacy of these isolates against Campylobacter in chickens. Progress was also made in identifying doses of fatty acids with efficacy against Campylobacter in chickens. Numerous doses of these fatty acids were tested at various times of production and the most efficacious doses were determined.

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PROGRESS: 2006/01/01 TO 2006/12/31<BR>
The project was just initiated. Experiments are underway to evaluate the effect of various feed and water additives on enteric pathogen colonization in poultry
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IMPACT: 2006/01/01 TO 2006/12/31<BR>
The use of specific feed or water additives may reduce foodborne pathogen colonization in poultry. This may reduce the prevalence of food borne disease in humans. Furthermore, this may also reduce the dependence upon antibiotic usage and development of antibiotic resistant disease organisms.