From Farm-to-Fork: Campylobacter Immunological Rapid Screening Tool for Farm-based, Pre-slaughter Screening of Live Chicken

Introduction: The USA and EU are increasing the focus on consumer health and food safety, especially in relation to Campylobacter infection. A Dutch study concluded that the risk of contracting campylobacteriosis could be effectively reduced by identifying and eliminating high shedding flocks, pre-slaughter, from fresh poultry meat production.

Purpose: For this purpose, a new lateral flow based method suitable for use on the farm by unskilled personnel and capable of delivering results within 2 hours was evaluated.

Methods: Field studies were conducted to evaluate the suitability and performance of the Merck Millipore Campylobacter Immunological Rapid Screening Kit compared to the standard culture ISO 10272 method, and in one study, also to real-time PCR, using a cross-seasonal representative set of fecal samples, collected during the Campylobacter baseline study launched by the European Commission in 2008.

Results: From a total of 187 flocks, the Lateral Flow test identified 102 C.jejuni and/or C.coli-positive flocks out of the 114 positive flocks detected by culture, indicating a sensitivity of 89.5% for the LFD. Eleven of the 12 false-negative samples were below 7.0 log CFU Campylobacter spp./g of feces and could be considered as not high-shedding flocks. Real-time PCR revealed 134 C.jejuni and/or C.coli-positive flocks out of 187 (71% prevalence) and so higher than identified by culture and Lateral Flow.

Significance: These studies indicate the lateral flow kit can reliably identify high shedding C.jejuni and/or C.coli broiler flocks under field conditions, pre-slaughter, with a time-to-result of 2 hours, and could be used as a tool for a Campylobacter Risk Management Program.