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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #297231
Title: Novel methods for pathogen control in livestock preharvest: An update

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

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/5/2013
Publication Date: 7/15/2013
Citation: Callaway, T.R., Anderson, R.C., Edrington, T.S., Genovese, K.J., Harvey, R.B., Poole, T.L., Nisbet, D.J. 2013. Novel methods for pathogen control in livestock preharvest: An update. In: Sofos, J., editor. Advances in Microbial Food Safety. Cambridge, UK: Woodhead Publishing Limited. p. 275-304.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Pathogenic bacteria are found asymptomatically within and on food animals, which often results in pathogen entry into the food chain, causing human illnesses. Slaughter and processing plants do an outstanding job in reducing pathogen contamination through the use of intervention strategies after slaughter and during further processing, yet foodborne illnesses still occur at an unacceptable frequency. Thus, it is critical that we devise strategies that act against pathogenic bacteria before they can enter the processing facility and food chain. Reducing farm levels of zoonotic pathogens will contribute to the enhancement of human health and food safety from the farm and environment to the consumer's fork. Therefore, a broad range of pre-slaughter intervention strategies are currently under investigation. These strategies are grouped together as: 1) direct anti-pathogen strategies, 2) competitive enhancement strategies, and 3) animal management strategies. Included within these categories are such diverse methods as: vaccination against foodborne pathogenic bacteria, probiotics/prebiotics/competitive exclusion to prevent pathogen colonization, using bacterial viruses to specifically reduce existing pathogen populations, and the use of chemical methods and dietary changes to specifically decrease pathogens. The simultaneous application of one or more pre-slaughter strategies has the potential to contribute to the reduction of human foodborne illnesses by erecting multiple hurdles against their entry into the food chain.