In a report issued by the German BVL, the detection rates of Campylobacter remain high with nearly half of the bird carcasses positive with a quarter with counts above 1000 cfu/gr. This indicates the difficulty in controlling a natural contaminate like Campylobacter in poultry.
German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL)
https://www.bvl.bund.de/EN/Home/home_node.html
Translated via Google Translate
https://www.bvl.bund.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/01_lebensmittel/2019/2019_11_19_PI_Zoonosen_Monitoring_2018.html
Still high Campylobacter rates in broilers
Process hygiene criterion shows not yet hoped for effect
The detection rates of Campylobacter spp. Broiler chickens remain at a high level. Nearly half of the broiler skin carcasses (46.3%) and fresh chicken (47.8%) samples were tested positive for Campylobacter as part of the 2018 Zoonoses Monitoring. Almost a quarter of the carcasses had Campylobacter counts of over 1,000 cfu / g. The process hygiene criterion introduced last year has therefore not yet led to a significant reduction in the Campylobacter burden in broilers, as reported by the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) in Berlin.
The process hygiene criterion of 1,000 colony-forming units per gram (cfu / g) for broiler carcasses was introduced across the EU to determine the presence of Campylobacter spp. in the poultry meat chain. Since January 1, 2018, companies that do not meet the requirements of the EU Regulation must take appropriate measures to ensure process hygiene.
In 2017, prior to the introduction of the process hygiene criterion, 22.7% of the carcasses had exceeded the said value. Last year, the rate remained virtually unchanged at 22.6%. The results underline the need for further efforts in this area to improve slaughter hygiene.
Salmonellae
Salmonella was found to be 22.7% in throat samples from fattening turkey carcasses, nearly twice as often as in zoonosis monitoring in 2016 (11.9% positive samples). The animals themselves, on the other hand, were rarely carriers of Salmonella (0.2% positive samples of cecal content). The detection rate of Salmonella in samples of fresh conventionally produced turkey meat was 4.0%, slightly higher than in the previous year (2.6%). Rising levels of contamination of carcasses at low levels of stress in animals indicate that improvements in hygiene practices in poultry slaughter are needed, as it appears that cross-contamination or carry-over of germs from the slaughter environment occurs to carcasses.
Listeria monocytogenes
Listeria monocytogenes were detected in 3.4% of the samples of spreadable or sliced chicken and / or turkey raw sausages. However, the germ counts were low, as in no sample were Listeria above the detection limit of 10 KbE / g detected by the quantitative method. In comparison to this, germ levels of L. monocytogenes were measured in spreadable pork sausages in the Zoonosis Monitoring 2017 in individual samples, which pose a potential health hazard for humans (220 CFU / g and 550 CFU / g).
ESBL / AmpC-producing E. coli
ESBL / AmpC-producing E. coli were detected in approximately half of the feces samples from conventional fattening turkey farms (51.8% positive samples) and 37.6% of conventionally produced turkey samples. In comparison, faecal samples from organic farms and, in particular, samples of ecologically produced turkey meat with detection rates of 36.8% and 12.2%, respectively, were significantly less positive for ESBL / AmpC-producing E. coli. ESBL / AmpC-producing bacteria are characterized by the formation of enzymes that can reduce or eliminate the efficacy of penicillins and cephalosporins, so that the bacteria are insensitive to these antibiotics. The frequent detection of ESBL / AmpC-producing E. coli in livestock is of concern because of the particular importance of the cephalosporins of the 3rd and 4th generation for the treatment of humans, especially since, based on current scientific knowledge, it is assumed that these resistant bacteria also over Food can be transmitted to humans.
Antibiotic resistance patterns
The results of the antibiotic resistance studies show that the resistance rates in the food chains broilers and fattening turkeys are highest among livestock, which reflects the more frequent use of antibiotics in this group of animals compared to cattle and pigs. It is striking that E. coli isolates from organic turkey farms and from ecologically produced turkey meat had significantly lower resistance rates (48.2%) than the corresponding isolates from conventional production (77.3%). In addition, isolates from organic production exhibited rare multidrug resistance to three or more substance classes compared to isolates from turkey farms and turkey meat of conventional production (17.7% vs. 42.9%). These differences, which were already observed in the 2016 zoonotic monitoring of conventional and organic broiler farms, are probably related to the lower frequency of antibiotics used in organic farms compared to conventional animal husbandry. The high resistance rates of more than 50% of the bacterial isolates of broilers and fattening turkeys compared to fluoroquinolones make it clear that the use of this antibiotic class in poultry in particular must be reduced, since it is considered to be particularly important for the antibiotic treatment in humans.
When interpreting the results of the resistance studies, it has to be taken into account that the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were assessed on the basis of the epidemiological cut-off values. These determine the proportion of microbiologically resistant isolates and give early indications of an incipient development of resistance, but do not allow any immediate statement about the likelihood of therapeutic success with an antibiotic.
Zoonotic Monitoring 2018
For the Zoonoses-Monitoring 2018, the supervisory authorities of the federal states took a total of 5,974 samples at all levels of the food chain and examined the occurrence of the most important food-borne pathogens. 3,356 bacterial isolates were obtained and further characterized in the National Reference Laboratories at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and tested for their resistance to selected antibiotics.
The full Report on Zoonosis Monitoring 2018 is available online at: www.bvl.bund.de/ZoonosenMonitoring
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