Campylobacter jejuni: Public health hazards and potential control methods in poultry: a review

Abstract

Certain strains of Campylobacter jejuni are implicated not only in diarrhea in humans, but also in the rare, but more serious Guillain-Barré syndrome, which may be fatal. Since poultry are the major reservoirs of C. jejuni, reducing contamination of poultry meat with this organism will decrease risk to the human consumer. Poultry meat which is contaminated with Campylobacter spp. and other human enteropathogens is safe for human consumption if handled properly while raw, and cooked completely. Recent experimental studies tend to indicate that diet formulations excluding animal proteins and fat may help towards reducing colonization of C. jejuni in the ceca of poultry, but attempts to combine this strategy with other methods including the use of probiotics aimed at competitive exclusion of C. jejuni, or prebiotics, which promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the large intestine, and thereby reduce C. jejuni colonization is worth studying. Whether reduction of C. jejuni by these methods will cause proportionate increase of C. coli, which is emerging as a more drug resistant human pathogen, is not known. Colonization reduction should ideally be combined with innovative approaches at the processing plant to bring down contamination to a negligible level, although presently there is no “acceptable or safe quantitative level” for campylobacters in raw chicken meat.