Institute for Food Quality and Food Safety, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2013 Dec;79(23):7525-33. doi: 10.1128/AEM.02703-13. Epub 2013 Sep 27.
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 (log10 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 >log10 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.
空肠弯曲菌肠炎是最常见的食源性人类肠炎。空肠弯曲菌感染的主要来源是肉鸡。风险评估认为，减少初级生产中的空肠弯曲菌对人类健康最有益。本研究的目的是测试在商业条件下应用噬菌体的效果，该噬菌体在之前的非商业对照实验条件下的研究中已被证明是有效的。一种用于减少空肠弯曲菌的噬菌体鸡尾酒在三个商业肉鸡养殖场进行了测试，每个养殖场都有一个对照组和一个实验组。在粪便样本中应用噬菌体之前，先确认空肠弯曲菌的定植情况。随后，实验组通过饮用水添加噬菌体鸡尾酒（log10 5.8 到 7.5 PFU/只）。噬菌体应用后 1 天，实验组的粪便样本中空肠弯曲菌的数量减少到检测限以下（<50 CFU/g，P=0.0140）。在屠宰时，与对照组相比，盲肠内容物中的空肠弯曲菌数量仍显著减少>log10 3.2 CFU/g（P=0.0011）。在其他试验的实验组中未观察到显著减少。然而，在受噬菌体污染的对照组中，盲肠空肠弯曲菌数量显著下降。这些结果表明，通过在屠宰前 1 至 4 天应用噬菌体，可能在屠宰场实现空肠弯曲菌的最大减少。
