| dc.description.abstract | Campylobacter spp. are now considered to be the leading cause of food borne enteritis
worldwide and the most frequently implicated animal host/reservoir of these pathogens is the
chicken. Campylobacter spp thrive in moist environment and the most important species
implicated in the human campylobacteriosis (C. jejuni, C. coli and C. lari) are thermophilic
and are known to contaminate a wide range of warm blooded hosts and can survive in water,
meat, soil, faeces, insects etc. therefore has a lot of potential routes of contaminating broilers
and infecting humans. Poultry, and more specifically broiler chickens have a metabolic
temperature of 42 ºC thus creating an optimal environment for Campylobacter growth and
proliferation and since broilers practice coprophagy contamination of the entire flock may
happen within a week. The consumption or mishandling of poultry meat is thought to be the
main route of human infection. Therefore in order to decrease the rates of infections in
humans substantially the main focus should be on decreasing the broiler contamination by
increasing biosecurity at rearing level and preventing cross contamination of broiler carcasses
at various levels at the processing plants. | en |
