Pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Escherichia coli are among the major pathogens causing foodborne illness worldwide. If poultry farmers can reduce these pathogens in the gastro-intestinal tracts of their chickens and turkeys, then they can help reduce the risk of pathogens in food processing and food products.

On the poultry farm, conventional approaches like increased biosecurity, better hygiene, changes to management and husbandry, and improved feed microbial security can help control pathogens. Going forward, however, major improvements in pathogen risk reduction require new tools — innovative nutritional health solutions — to assure greater food safety.

Wael Abdelrahman, DVM, MVSc, PhD is the Poultry Technical Service & Business Development Manager for Diamond V in Europe. His areas of special expertise include poultry gut health and immunology, with a focus on optimal poultry production, health risk mitigation, and food safety. Dr. Abdelrahman and other experts will be available at EuroTier to discuss nutritional health technology to promote poultry product safety.

Effective pre-harvest food safety intervention against foodborne pathogens in poultry and other food animals requires proven reduction in:

• Prevalence - proportion (%) of animal population infected

• Number - measure of viable bacterial cells (CFU/g, log10, MPN), which multiplied by pathogen prevalence indicates 'pathogen load'

• Virulence - ability to cause disease, which indicates the likelihood that someone consuming infected product will become sick

• Antibiotic resistance - ability to survive, reproduce, and cause disease despite antibiotic therapy that had controlled such infection in the past, so that reducing antibiotic resistance increases the likelihood that someone who is infected will respond to therapy

When poultry farmers reduce pathogens such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, and E. coli in their birds, they are helping to reduce the pathogen load entering the processing facility. Reduced pathogen load in processing can result in lower costs and improved regulatory compliance for the food processor. Reduced pathogen load also helps reduce the risk of product recall, which helps maintain brand integrity and consumer confidence.

Effective pre-harvest food safety intervention also has the potential to improve public health. Meeting the criteria of reduced virulence and antibiotic resistance means that pathogenic bacteria on the farm may become less of a health risk to farm animals, farmers, workers, and consumers.

Diamond V leads in the emerging field of pre-harvest food safety. Nutritional health technologies such as Original XPC™ help assure safe food while promoting antibiotic stewardship.

Nutritional health research published by Diamond V focuses on immunity, digestive health, performance, and pre-harvest food safety. More than 125 peer-reviewed published scientific journal articles support the use of Diamond V products in poultry, pigs, dairy and beef cattle, aquaculture species, and other food animals. These products do not treat or prevent diseases. Rather, they support health and wellness naturally.

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