Effect of Bacteriophage Application on Campylobacter jejuni Loads in Commercial Broiler Flocks

Abstract

Campylobacteriosis is the most frequent food-borne human enteritis. The major source for infection with Campylobacter spp. is broiler meat. Risk assessments consider the reduction of Campylobacter in primary production to be most beneficial for human health. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of a bacteriophage application under commercial conditions which had proved to be effective in previous noncommercial studies under controlled experimental conditions. A phage cocktail for Campylobacter reduction was tested on three commercial broiler farms each with a control and an experimental group. Colonization of Campylobacter was confirmed prior to phage application in fecal samples. Subsequently, a phage cocktail was applied via drinking water in the experimental group (log 10 5.8 to 7.5 PFU/bird). One day after phage application, Campylobacter counts of one experimental group were reduced under the detection limit (<50 CFU/g, P ‫؍‬ 0.0140) in fecal samples. At slaughter, a significant reduction of >log 10 3.2 CFU/g cecal content compared to the control was still detected (P ‫؍‬ 0.0011). No significant reduction was observed in the experimental groups of the other trials. However, a significant drop in cecal Campylobacter counts occurred in a phage-contaminated control. These results suggest that maximum reduction of Campylobacter at the slaughterhouse might be achieved by phage application 1 to 4 days prior to slaughter.

Bacteriophages Isolated from Chicken Meat and the Horizontal Transfer of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes

“…Recently, lytic phages have been used in phage therapy for the treatment of colibacillosis caused by multiresistant chickenpathogenic E. coli strains (40) or for reducing Campylobacter loads in chickens (41). Considering our results, there could possibly be a risk of transduction of antibiotic resistance genes by these phages.…”

Salmonella and Campylobacter : Antimicrobial resistance and bacteriophage control in poultry

“…However, 6% of the recovered Campylobacter strains were phage resistant when previously susceptible. A study by Kittler et al (2013) administered bacteriophage through a drinking line in a commercial poultry setting where the chickens were allowed to naturally become infected with Campylobacter. The bacteriophage was introduced to the birds at 36 days of age, a few days before slaughter, and the treatment group showed greater than 3.2 Log 10 reduction over the control.…”

The Minor Flagellin of Campylobacter jejuni (FlaB) Confers Defensive Properties against Bacteriophage Infection

“…The aim of the present study was to identify factors that impact on Eucampyvirinae bacteriophage infection that constitute a virulent subfamily of the Myoviridae (Javed et al, 2014), and are candidates for phage therapy of farm animals (Loc Carrillo et al, 2005; El-Shibiny et al, 2009; Kittler et al, 2013; Hammerl et al, 2014) and phage biosanitization applications (Atterbury et al, 2003; Goode et al, 2003; Bigwood et al, 2008) to control campylobacters in the human food chain (Connerton et al, 2011). For this purpose, we have constructed isogenic knock-out mutants targeting virulence and animal host colonization factors in the bacteriophage propagation strain C. jejuni PT14 (Brathwaite et al, 2013).…”