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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Poultry Microbiological Safety and Processing Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #405764
Research Project: Intervention Strategies to Control Salmonella and Campylobacter During Poultry Processing

Location: Poultry Microbiological Safety and Processing Research Unit

Title: Prevalence and subtype characterization of Campylobacter in ceca of commercial broiler chickens at processing – a 452 flock, sevenyear surve

Author
item Meinersmann, Richard - Rick
item Berrang, Mark
item McMillan, Elizabeth
item Knapp, Steven - Steve

Submitted to: Journal of Food Protection
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/23/2023
Publication Date: 10/6/2023
Citation: Meinersmann, R.J., Berrang, M.E., Mcmillan, E.A., Knapp, S.W. 2023. Prevalence and subtype characterization of Campylobacter in ceca of commercial broiler chickens at processing – a 452 flock, sevenyear surve. Journal of Food Protection. 86(100170). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2023.100170.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2023.100170

Interpretive Summary: Campylobacter is a human foodborne pathogen that has been historically linked with chickens and chicken meat products. Relative humidity and rainfall may be expected to affect the survival and transmission of Campylobacter in and around chicken farms. A long term study was conducted to see if weather conditions affected trends in the Campylobacter populations in chickens. Over the course of seven years, weekly samples were obtained from a slaughter plant along with data on weather conditions. Recovered bacteria were typed by DNA sequencing to see if there were seasonal patterns of successful types of the pathogen. The results showed very little correlation of recovery rates with the seasons or the weather patterns with regards to daily temperatures or precipitation.

Technical Abstract: Human Campylobacter infections have been associated with chicken and other poultry meat products. Environmental conditions such a temperature and season can affect Campylobacter recoverability from chicken meat products. In the presented study, we sought to investigate the relationship between ambient weather conditions and isolation of Campylobacter from chicken flocks, as well as the subtype of these isolates. Campylobacter was isolated from ceca of broilers collected in a commercial processing facility over seven years, representing 452 flocks. Isolates were subjected to whole genome sequencing and subtyping by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Approximately 60% (269/452) of flocks sampled were positive for Campylobacter.