Pet Store Puppies Linked To Campylobacter Outbreak In People.

Pet Store Puppies Linked To Campylobacter Outbreak In People.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating a Campylobacter outbreak in people and its link to puppies purchased from a chain of pet stores. According to the CDC, at least 39 people across seven states have confirmed or suspected cases of Campylobacter bacteria, which can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever. While the investigation is ongoing, federal officials have linked it to contact with puppies sold by Petland, a chain of pet stores based in Ohio. Twelve of the confirmed cases are in Petland employees, and 27 other people who fell ill either visited a Petland, recently purchased a puppy there, or visited or live in a home with a Petland puppy. According to the CDC's announcement, nine people have been hospitalized and there are no reported deaths. Campylobacter can infect dogs, cats and humans, but most commonly the bacteria are spread through eating raw or undercooked meat. About 47 percent of raw chicken samples tested in 2011 were positive for Campylobacter, according to the CDC. Humans don't typically spread the bacteria to each other, but it is possible to be exposed through dog feces. In a typical case, symptoms last for about a week.The CDC estimates that annually, Campylobacter affects 1.3 million people. The good news is that most people get well on their own. The CDC says people typically need antibiotics only if they're immune compromised or at high risk of complications. To minimize risk of illness, the CDC suggests washing your hands after touching your dog, though for any dog lover, washing your hands every time .The CDC also recommends quickly disposing of dog poop using disposable gloves, as well as regular visits to the veterinarian to keep your dog healthy.

Campylobacter in poultry: An elusive pathogen.

Campylobacter in poultry: An elusive pathogen. Campylobacter — primarily Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli — frequently colonize the intestinal tract of domestic poultry at high levels. The bacterium is well adapted to the avian host and, despite extensive colonization, it produces little or no overt disease in poultry. That makes it difficult to detect and control in live birds. Despite its insignificance for poultry health, Campylobacter is a leading cause of foodborne gastroenteritis in humans worldwide.The poultry reservoir, especially broiler meat, is the most commonly recognized source for human Campylobacter. Campylobacter is, in general, highly prevalent on poultry farms, but the prevalence varies by region, seasons and production types, with reported Campylobacter-positive flocks ranging from 2% to 100%. Once a broiler flock is infected with Campylobacter, the majority of birds become colonized within a few days, and the overall within-flock prevalence reaches very high levels by processing age, leading to increased carcass contamination. A unique feature of Campylobacter ecology in poultry is that birds younger than 2 to 3 weeks of age are almost never colonized by the organism in commercial production settings, which implies that young birds have a biological mechanism for colonization resistance. If the reasons for this colonization resistance are revealed, they could be used to design effective strategies to prevent birds from getting infected.

HOW CHICKEN MOVEMENT IS USED TO DETECT CAMPYLOBACTER-INFECTED FLOCK.

An Oxford team tested the hypothesis that flocks colonized with Campylobacter might be distinguishable by their behavior.This is based on suggestions that infection could have an impact on chickens' welfare. Professor Marian Dawkins, of Animal Behaviour at Oxford and corresponding author on the paper, said: "We used a novel and non-invasive way of monitoring the behavior of chickens throughout their lives that involved analyzing the optical flow patterns from cameras inside broiler houses. What is optical flow and how is it measured? Optical flow works by detecting the patterns formed by changes in brightness in moving images, both temporally and spatially.It is computationally simple and does not require tagging or marking individual animals, making it ideal for long-term continuous monitoring of large groups of similar animals such as egg-laying hens and broiler chickens, where optical flow is predictive of key welfare measures such as mortality rate. To test the hypothesis that optical flow analysis might also be able to detect when flocks become infected with Campylobacter, the researchers collected data for 31 commercial broiler flocks.They also collected faecal samples from those same flocks and tested them for the presence of Campylobacter at different ages (21 days, 28 days and 35 days) using standard laboratory methods. This gave a direct comparison between optical flow and testing from fecal samples. Campylobacter-positive flocks showed lower mean optical flow (less average movement) and higher kurtosis (less uniform movement) than flocks without the bacteria - as early as the first 10 days of life. Additionally, this link was independent of external temperature. Professor Dawkins said: "Our results provide statistical evidence of a link between broiler chicken flock behavior and Campylobacter status. excerpts from journal proceedings from Royal society B

Chicken Movements Help Combat Campylobacter.

A new technique that monitors the movement of chickens can be used to predict which flocks are at risk of becoming infected with Campylobacter - the most common bacterial source of food poisoning in humans in the UK. Research by scientists at Oxford University has found that by using a camera system to analyse the 'optical flow' of chickens, at-risk flocks can be detected when the birds are only seven to 10 days old - much earlier than is usually possible with conventional on-farm sampling methods.Despite efforts to improve bio security, Campylobacter - which can reach humans through raw or undercooked chicken - has so far been persistently difficult to eliminate from the food chain. This new early warning system has the potential to transform the way Campylobacter is controlled, benefiting producers, consumers and the birds themselves. Source ;Royal society B/ POULTRY SITE.

DYSBIOSIS IN BROILERS.

Poultry products are a major avenue for the introduction of Campylobacter into the food supply, with undercooked poultry and cross-contamination as the common way that Campylobacter is transmitted to humans. The largest number of these food borne bacterial infections is caused by the species Campylobacter jejuni. 

 Professor Tom Humphrey of Swansea University in Wales gave a presentation entitled ‘Campylobacter: important human and chicken pathogens’. According to Humphrey, Campylobacter is currently the most significant pathogen that can be transmitted from animals to humans through meat. In that framework, more attention should be given to Campylobacter than to Salmonella at present. Currently around the world, Campylobacter is causing a massive number of infections and inflammations. 

One big problem in the fight against Campylobacter at this time is that there are no concrete measures that can be taken to prevent meat from being contami-nated. The only advice that can be given to consumers is that they should thoroughly roast or cook chicken meat. 

 According to Van Immerseel, the group of professor Pasmans at Ghent University is currently working on research that involves developing Campylobacter antibodies to be used as feed additives. The antibodies attach themselves to the Campylobacter bacterium, thus impeding the bacterium in its interaction with the chicken gut.

 These antibodies can then be added to compound feeding stuffs. “They expect to be able to say within months whether it’s going to work or not,” said Van Immerseel. According to the professor, the poultry sector worldwide has Salmonella increasingly under control. “Laying hens are vaccinated and, in respect of broilers, the focus is on good hygiene and decontamination measures.” Excerpts from presentation at the IHSIG termed One world,One health.

DYSBIOSIS.

This basically refers to an imbalance in the gut flora leading to various illness such as inflammatory bowel disease,cancer, bacterial vaginosis and colitis.

The disruption in the normal flora of the gut is largely due to abuse of antibiotics which not only have harmful effect in man but in animals as well.

 Campylobacter is an important player here; causes intestinal infections as it normally inhabits the gut of warm blooded animals such as poultry and cattle and are usually detected in products derived from them. 

Campylobacter are the major causes of food borne illness in homes,usually characterized by abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea.

 The prevention of food illness from campylobacter is to embrace basic food hygiene protocol and cook beef and poultry thoroughly as the bacteria is killed by heat.