Campylobacter Contamination at Retail of Halal Chicken Produced in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Campylobacter is the leading cause of human bacterial diarrhoeal disease worldwide, with poultry meat products accounting for the majority of human cases. Recent surveys by the Food Standards Agency estimate the Campylobacter prevalence in fresh UK retail chicken to be 41.2%. However, such surveys have not distinguished between broiler chickens produced for different consumer demographics, such as the Halal market. Campylobacter colonisation of broilers is difficult to prevent, especially during routine partial depopulation of flocks. Broilers produced for the Halal market may undergo multiple depopulation events, which may increase the risk of colonisation and subsequent Campylobacter contamination of chicken meat. This project aimed to determine the prevalence and levels of Campylobacter contamination of chicken meat produced for the UK Halal market. Campylobacter was identified and enumerated from the neck skin and outer packaging of 405 Halal chickens. Following culture, isolates were assigned to species via PCR and disc diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility tests determined. Logistic regression analysis assessed risk factors for Campylobacter isolation, the level of Campylobacter contamination among positive carcasses and antimicrobial resistance outcomes. Campylobacter spp. were confirmed in 65.4% of neck skin samples and 17.1% of packaging samples. 13.8% of neck skin samples had the highest level of contamination (>1000 cfu/g). Large birds had a significantly higher number of samples with >1000 cfu/g (p<0.001) and as chicken carcass weight increased, birds were more likely to be Campylobacter-positive (p<0.05). A high prevalence of resistance was seen to ciprofloxacin (42.0%) and 38.5% of samples contained at least one multi-drug resistant Campylobacter isolate. This study demonstrates that Halal chicken has a higher Campylobacter prevalence than non-Halal chicken. Interventions should be introduced to reduce this increased public health risk to consumers.

Quantification of Campylobacter contamination on chicken carcasses sold in retail markets in the United Arab Emirates

“…1). Compared to our results, a study in the UK found that 13.8% of the neck skin of Halal chicken carcasses (n = 265) sampled from retail had counts ≥3 log 10 CFU/g (Royden et al 2021). On the other hand, a Belgium-wide survey of Campylobacter counts in chicken meat (n = 656) showed an average of ~ 50 CFU/g (1.69 log 10 CFU/g), and 11.6% of the chicken meat carried ≥2 log 10 CFU/g [3].…”

“…Such finding is comparable with counts data of Campylobacter spp. in chicken carcasses in a comprehensive survey done in the U.S.A (74% (n = 2400)) and considerably larger than what was concluded in a recent study on Halal chicken slaughtered in UK, where 49.6% of whole carcasses (n = 405) had Campylobacter of < 1 log 10 CFU/g (FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) 2008; Royden et al 2021). It is likely that the recovery of Campylobacter from retail chicken using direct plating to become lower as the bacterial loads fall below the quantification limit of such a method (Oyarzabal et al 2007).…”

The Role of Biosecurity in the Control of Campylobacter: A Qualitative Study of the Attitudes and Perceptions of UK Broiler Farm Workers

“…Future work would benefit from exploring the views of broiler farm owners, managers and workers supplying other parts of the broiler chicken market and specific consumer demographics, such as the wholesale and Halal markets. Farms supplying the wholesale and Halal markets are less likely to be part of an integrated system that has undergone the recent overhaul to biosecurity measures, including reducing the number of thinning events to no more than one per flock, and Halal chicken meat has been demonstrated to have a higher Campylobacter prevalence than non-halal ( 47 ).…”

Mind the gap : Newspapers as a forum for democratic public debate on food production

“…For instance, Figure 19 shows that attribution of victimhood to the industry were very frequent between 2003 and 2008, illustrating how the industry was mostly framed as a victim of the avian influenza outbreak that occurred between those years. By contrast, the highest frequency of attributions of both causal and treatment responsibility occurred in 2014, during which coverage of foodborne illness -mostly due to campylobacter -was the most frequently covered issue in our dataset (and consistent with scientific evidence suggesting that poultry is the most likely cause of most human cases of campylobacteriosis (Royden et al, 2021;Wilson et al, 2008)). 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Disaggregating the data by outlet also showed differences across outlets.…”