Page 11 - National Poultry Newspaper

Think you’ve had a ‘poo’ day: seasonal variation in the processing plant
■ Co-funded AgriFutures and DAF project
FOOD safety is para- mount for all food in- dustries, including the chicken meat industry.
It is of key importance that the chicken meat in- dustry continues to con- tribute to the reduction of food-borne illnesses in humans.
Healthy chicken gut flo- ra can include salmonella and campylobacter.
Recognising this reality, the chicken meat industry has had a long history of active research into im- proved methods to reduce/ eliminate these pathogens both on-farm and in the processing plant.
Project 010984 seeks to provide key information on the natural variation that occurs in the presence and level of key pathogens (salmonella and campylo- bacter) over time (both at the seasonal level and at the day level).
This project will update the national picture using selected processing plants around Australia.
Importantly, no research into the variation (in both presence and level) that occurs daily over a time- frame of a week or be- tween seasons has been undertaken.
It also seeks to fill these knowledge gaps.
The knowledge gained by this project will allow the industry to be more ef- fective and targeted in the ongoing monitoring that occurs in the processing plant.
Improved and focused monitoring will ensure the industry continues to provide food products that are safe and meet the expectations of the mar- ket as well as the relevant regulatory authorities. Objectives
• This project aims deliver safe food and good animal welfare outcomes for the chicken meat in- dustry and its consumers.
• This project will estab- lish the variation in pres- ence and level, over time (weekly and seasonally), of key food safety patho- gens (campylobacter and salmonella) in representa- tive processing plants from major companies.
• The project will select processing plants based on different interventions in place that will provide maximum information on the management of risk in industry guidelines.
In summary
• Six representative pro- cessing plants selected based on interventions currently in place (done with advice of Steering Committee).
• Intensive sampling twice in the year of each plant, in winter (May-Au- gust) and summer (Octo- ber-February).
• Repeat sampling will take place three days in a week, three consecutive weeks in a row for each plant in winter and sum- mer.
chill, after chill and after packaging). For the fol- lowing two days of each week, only the caecum and after packaging point will be sampled.
• Determine presence and levels of campylo- bacter and salmonella by Australian Standard methods.
Outcomes
• Industry will have de- tailed knowledge on the presence and levels of campylobacter and sal- monella in representative processing plants over time (weekly and season- ally).
• Industry will have the capacity to design/modi- fy in-plant interventions with relevant risk man- agement strategies.
• It is expected the knowledge gained from this project will assist the industry to identify and implement targeted man- agement practices to re- duce the impact of chick- en-associated food-borne illness on the Australian community.
Implications – economic benefits
This research provides significant potential for the industry to reduce lev- els of food-borne patho- gens.
These pathogens are as- sociated with significant costs to society.
The costs for just one of these pathogens, campylo- bacter, are outlined below.
• European studies indi- cate on-farm interventions can be very effective in campylobacter counts and consequently human in- fections.
• There were 17,717 cases of campylobacte- riosis in humans in Aus- tralia in 2011. In 1995, it was estimated each case of campylobacteriosis in the US was costing some- where between $US350- 580. As a conservative es- timate, on the basis of the 1995 US estimate, each case in Australia could be costing on average $400. Using this conserva- tive estimate and total of 15,000 cases per annum, campylobacteriosis could be costing the Australian community about $6 mil- lion per annum. Environmental benefits
A detailed knowledge of the presence and current levels, as well as seasonal and daily variations in campylobacter and sal- monella in the process- ing plant will allow the industry to focus on ef- fective, targeted control programs.
The use of targeted in- tervention programs re- duces the overall resource demands of the poultry industry.
This reduction in re- source demand will be the major environmental ben- efit of the project.
Social benefits
Food-borne illness is a major social burden to the Australian community, so an improved ability to re- duce poultry-associated oc- currences in the Australian human population is a sig- nificant social benefit.
This research provides industry with the ability to determine the presence and levels of the stated pathogens in the process- ing plant.
It will assist the Austral- ian poultry industry to de- velop effective programs to limit the contribution of the industry to human food-borne illness. Progress
The team comprising Jillian Templeton (project leader, DAF), Sarah Yee (QAAFI) and Pat Black- all (QAAFI) have already processed 270 chicken carcass rinse samples and 270 caeca (the part of the chicken intestine that is the ‘home’ of these food safetypathogens).
Sample processing in- volves culturing bottles of chicken carcass ‘rinse’ as well as delicately squeez-
ing out the caecal contents (poo) and plating this out onto suitable agar and liq- uid media.
Then once everything has had time to grow, the team looks at the incu-
bated media to determine the presence and levels of the target food safety pathogens.
The team are happily a quarter of the way through sampling, with only three-
quarters to go.
Acknowledgements
AgriFutures Australia acknowledges its research partner, Queensland De- partment of Agriculture and Fisheries and the
major Australian chicken meat companies that pro- vided access to processing plants.
Learn more at agrifu tures.com.au/chicken meat
• On the first day of the week, 10 chickens will
be sampled from all six points (caecum, before scald, after scald, before www.poultrynews.com.au

to
This project, co-funded by the AgriFutures Chicken Meat Program, is intense, dirty, smelly and critical to understanding how the presence and level of key food safety pathogens salmonella and campylobacter vary between winter and summer.

National Poultry Newspaper, December 2019 – Page 11