Natural ingredients reduce campylobacter
Poultry meat is less likely to be contaminated with Campylobacter if the birds are fed natural feed ingredients, scientists report.
According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, there are
approx. 76 mln cases of food poisoning in the US every year. “Foodborne
pathogens are very prevalent in a lot of our domestic animals, especially in
poultry,” said Dan Donoghue of the University of Arkansas in the American
Chemical Society’s Global Challenges podcast, adding that the 2 mot prevalent
bacterial contaminants of poultry are Salmonella and
Campylobacter.
Natural feed ingredient caprylic
acid
Donoghue thought that changing the bird’s diet may make a
difference and see what effect this would have on the Campylobcter counts.
According to results (published in the July issue of the journal Applied and
Environmental Microbiology), it did. Birds were fed natural feed ingredients,
specifically a compound called caprylic acid.
“It’s a medium-chain fatty
acid, it’s found in cow’s milk, and in coconut milk, and it has antibacterial
activity,” Donoghue said. “We found that when you add it to the diet of poultry,
it seems to consistently inhibit or reduce Campylobacter colonisation of
poultry.”
Donoghue and his colleagues will publish further research on
the antibacterial feed in an upcoming issue of the journal Poultry
Science.
Source: Live Science
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