Application of Bacteriophages to Limit Campylobacter in Poultry Production

Abstract

Campylobacter is a major foodborne pathogen with over a million United States cases a year and is typically acquired through the consumption of poultry products. The common occurrence of Campylobacter as a member of the poultry gastrointestinal tract microbial community remains a challenge for optimizing intervention strategies. Simultaneously, increasing demand for antibiotic-free products has led to the development of several alternative control measures both at the farm and in processing operations. Bacteriophages administered to reduce foodborne pathogens are one of the alternatives that have received renewed interest. Campylobacter phages have been isolated from both conventionally and organically raised poultry. Isolated and cultivated Campylobacter bacteriophages have been used as an intervention in live birds to target colonized Campylobacter in the gastrointestinal tract. Application of Campylobacter phages to poultry carcasses has also been explored as a strategy to reduce Campylobacter levels during poultry processing. This review will focus on the biology and ecology of Campylobacter bacteriophages in poultry production followed by discussion on current and potential applications as an intervention strategy to reduce Campylobacter occurrence in poultry production.

Determination of phage load and administration time in simulated occurrences of antibacterial treatments

“…However, in the absence of experimental data, including this feature would have increased the model’s complexity without providing any real benefit to the present study. However, the increasing application of phages for eco-restoration ( 57 ), food safety ( 58 , 59 ), and sterilization of surfaces ( 60 – 64 ) implies that phage-derived antibacterial treatments need to work even in the absence of a complementary immune response.…”

Advances in enteropathogen control throughout the meat chicken production chain

“…A meta-analysis by Mosimann et al (2021) showed that bacteriophage treatment can reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry, and examined factors that can affect the efficacy. One concern when using phage treatments is the possibility for the target bacteria to develop resistance, but strategies can be used to combat this, including the use of cocktail phage mixtures rather than a single type (Olson et al, 2022). Bacteriophage will also not grow effectively when below a threshold host bacteria population, so effects may be limited when Campylobacter and Salmonella counts in the gut of broilers are already low (El-Shibiny et al, 2009;Kittler et al, 2013).…”

“…Bacteriophage dietary treatments are a relatively emerging field but could be suitable as feed and water additives as they are nontoxic and have a high host specificity (Olson et al., 2022). Studies have identified bacteriophage dietary additives that can reduce cecal Salmonella by up to 2.1 log 10 CFU/g (Kim et al., 2013) and Campylobacter by up to 2 log 10 CFU/g in the feces and 3.2 log 10 CFU/g in the cecal contents (Carvalho et al., 2010; Kittler et al., 2013), but others saw no significant effect from treatment (Kim et al., 2014), including a field trial of a commercial phage product (SalmoFREE ® ) (Clavijo et al., 2019).…”

Avian Pathogens: Editorial and the Perspectives of Research

“…For example, Campylobacter phages application to poultry carcasses has been suggested as a strategy to decrease Campylobacter concentrations during poultry processing. [ 28 ].…”