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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Food Safety and Enteric Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #154544
Title: EFFECT OF TRANSPORT AND HOLDING ON THE PREVALENCE OF CAMPYLOBACTER IN MARKET WEIGHT TURKEYS

Author
item Muraoka, Wayne
item Wesley, Irene
item TRAMPEL, D - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item Nestor, Emily
item ANDERSEN, M - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item Hurd, Howard
item MORALES, V - UNIV OF NUEVO LEON

Submitted to: Research Workers in Animal Diseases Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/9/2003
Publication Date: 11/9/2003
Citation: MURAOKA, W.T., WESLEY, I.V., TRAMPEL, D.W., NESTOR, E.J., ANDERSEN, M.M., HURD, H.S., MORALES, V.A. EFFECT OF TRANSPORT AND HOLDING ON THE PREVALENCE OF CAMPYLOBACTER IN MARKET WEIGHT TURKEYS. CONFERENCE OF RESEARCH WORKERS IN ANIMAL DISEASES. 2003. ABSTRACT P. 20P.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Epidemiological studies have shown that the holding pen at the abattoir can facilitate Salmonella transmission in swine, due to environmental exposure in the pens. We hypothesize that the transport and holding cages of turkeys serve as an important conduit of Campylobacter transmission in commercial turkeys. To test this hypothesis, the prevalence of Campylobacter in live, market weight turkeys was assessed 1) at the farm prior to loading into transport cages, and 2) at the slaughter facility just prior to slaughter. Four commercial turkey flocks in Iowa were tested for Campylobacter using cloacal swabs during the summer of 2003. The prevalence of Campylobacter ranged from 65% to 87% (n = 120 for each flock) at the farm and 66% to 92% (n = 120 for each flock) at the slaughter facility. Chi-square analysis indicated no significant difference between the two sampling times in three of the four flocks examined (P = 0.89, 0.86, <0.01, and 0.16; flock 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively). The preponderance of Campylobacter positive turkeys was contaminated with C. jejuni (535/695); C. coli was recovered from 78 turkeys, C. lari was isolated from six turkeys and 82 turkeys were concurrently positive for both C. jejuni and C. coli. There was a difference (P = < 0.01) in the frequency of concurrently positive turkeys between the two sampling times. In addition to live bird sampling, postmortem samples (cecum and crop, n = 50) were taken. Preliminary results from viscera suggest that C. coli are recovered more frequently from the crop (77%) and ceca (100%) than C. jejuni (26% and 4.3% from the crop and cecum, respectively). These preliminary results suggest that Campylobacter can be frequently recovered from the cloaca of market turkeys at a consistent level at the farm and after transport and holding.