On-farm interventions to reduce epizootic bacteria in food-producing animals and the environment

Abstract

Foodborne disease infections are estimated to afflict more than 76 million people in the United States each year (Mead et al. 1999). Campylobacter and Salmonella are responsible for most cases of the bacterial foodborne disease, causing more than 1.9 and 1.3 million infections, respectively (Mead et al. 1999). Escherichia coli O157 and non-O157 shiga toxin-producing E. coli are estimated to cause more than 62,000 and 31,000 cases of foodborne disease annually (Mead et al. 1999). Costs associated with foodborne illness caused by the bacteria are considerable, exceeding $2.4 billion for Salmonella and $445 million for E. coli O157 (Crutchfield and Roberts 2000; ERS 2007). Cost for foodborne Campylobacter infections are estimated at $1.2 billion annually (Crutchfield and Roberts 2000). Although Listeria monocytogenes is estimated to cause fewer than 2,500 cases of disease, its associated annual cost exceeds $6.9 billion, due largely to the long-term impact of congential and newborn infections (Crutchfield and Roberts 2000). Considerable effort has been and continues to be expended by government agencies and all involved in the production of food to ensure that the food pro - duced is safe and wholesome. Contemporary concepts now recognize that applying preharvest interventions with existing or newly develped postharvest technologies (chemical dehairing, steam pasteurization, steam vacuuming, and hot water and organic acid rinses and irradiation) in a "multi-hurdle" approach could result in the most effective way to minimize contamination of meat products by foodborne pathogens (Acuff et al. 1987; Castell-Perez and Moreira 2004; Cherrington et al. 1991; Dorsa 1997; Farkas 1998; Hardin et al. 1995; Keeton and Eddy 2004; Koohmaraie et al. 2005; Micheals et al. 2004; Ricke 2003). In 2003, for example, the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service listed among their research priorities "Development of improved on-farm, feedlot, and antemortem interventions for reducing the incidence and levels of pathogens in raw products" (FSIS 2003). Risk assessments provide support for the concept that preharvest interventions would reduce human exposure to pathogens (Hynes and Wachsmuth 2000; Vugia et al. 2003). Presently, we review some of the research conducted within our laboratory aimed at developing safe and efficacious feed or water supplements to reduce the incidence and survivability of foodborne pathogens in the gut of food animals. © 2010 by The University of Arkansas Press. All rights reserved.