Effects of financial incentives and cessation of thinning on prevalence of Campylobacter: a longitudinal monitoring study on commercial broiler farms in the UK

Abstract

is the leading cause of food poisoning in the UK. 2 Sisters Food Group, with retail partners, monitored the effect that: (1) awarding financial incentives to farmers and stockpersons for producing houses that were not highly contaminated with , or (2) the cessation of thinning (where ~30 per cent of birds are removed and processed at around day 35 of the crop cycle), had on prevalence of on UK broiler farms in a longitudinal monitoring study. Ninety-four farms and 759 houses were monitored from November 2013 to October 2015, with and without interventions. Financial incentives and thinning were significantly associated with prevalence. Houses on farms receiving an incentive had a 54 per cent reduction in odds of being highly contaminated with Houses that were thinned had a 309 per cent increase in odds of being highly contaminated. Temperature and bird age were significantly positively associated with Changes in industry practice at supply chain level can support control plans in commercial broiler flocks. Elucidating farm-level factors associated with prevalence (such as house type, condition, flock size) as well as individual factors related to thinning (stocking density, weight profile and associated economic consequences) require further investigation.

Update and review of control options for Campylobacter in broilers at primary production

“…introduced at thinning, spread rapidly throughout the flock reaching levels in the birds of up to 10 8 cells per gram of caecal matter within 4-5 days after thinning (Koolman et al, 2014). In a recent investigation, Higham et al (2018) confirmed previous findings and showed that thinned houses had a 309% increase in the odds of being highly contaminated and concluded that further investigations are required to elucidate farm and individual factors related to thinning (Higham et al, 2018).…”

“…In a recent investigation, Higham et al. () confirmed previous findings and showed that thinned houses had a 309% increase in the odds of being highly contaminated and concluded that further investigations are required to elucidate farm and individual factors related to thinning (Higham et al., ).…”

“…This may be due to maternal antibodies and/or the inability of current testing methods to detect low concentrations of the organism in a small subset of the flock population. Slaughter age is still found among the risk factors identified in epidemiological investigations with conventionally produced birds almost always having higher prevalence and caecal concentration towards the end of the production cycle (Sommer et al, 2013;Legaudaite-Lydekaitiene et al, 2017;Higham et al, 2018). Higham et al (2018) showed that age was significantly positively associated with Campylobacter spp.…”

Maximising Productivity and Eliminating Campylobacter in Broilers by Manipulating Stocking Density and Population Structure Using ‘Biosecurity Cubes’

“…Conventionally produced broilers are usually harvested when they achieve their target weight, which requires on average 41.4 days in the EU [13]. However, flock positivity is directly related to slaughter age, and the younger the birds, the less likely they are to be colonised by Campylobacter [22,23]. Van Wagenberg et al estimated that if all flocks were slaughtered by 35 days or earlier, there would be a reduction in human campylobacteriosis by 10-18% [24].…”

Research on Supply Chain Financial Risk Assessment Based on Blockchain and Fuzzy Neural Networks

“…For the blockchain, it is composed of several blocks. The block is a data structure, which mainly includes two parts: intrablock structure and interblock structure [26]. The intrablock structure is mainly composed of data blocks, and the data blocks include two parts: block header and block body.…”