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Scientific Interpretive Summary

Possible role of farmers’ overalls in transmitting Campylobacter on broiler chicken farms

Maintaining adequate biosecurity is a continual challenge on broiler chicken farms and there are various pathways through which Campylobacter can be transferred from one broiler shed to another. One possible pathway is farmers’ overalls.

NZFSA commissioned a science project by ESR to indicate whether overall garments worn by farmers entering sheds housing Campylobacter positive broiler chicken flocks could be contaminated with the pathogen. A further aspect of the study was to determine if debris shaken loose from overalls could transfer infection to other sheds.

Ten overall garments from ten broiler sheds that housed Campylobacter-infected broilers were tested for Campylobacter carriage. Loose debris shaken from two overalls tested positive for Campylobacter by enrichment. One of the two overalls also tested positive for Campylobacter when the overall garment was rinsed and the rinsate enriched for Campylobacter. These findings demonstrated that farm overalls worn in sheds housing infected poultry flocks can become contaminated and this introduces the likelihood of disseminating Campylobacter in poultry farms from infected sheds to those that are Campylobacter-free.

This study demonstrates another means of carriage of Campylobacter from broiler shed to broiler shed. One means of minimizing this transfer is to use shed-dedicated overalls and provide procedures (and location) to properly change overalls so that the shed-specific overalls would not become contaminated when put on.

Updated 11 June 2009