New UA Bacterial Culture Reduces Poultry Pathogens; Researcher Aims Higher

This article was published by the Food Safety Consortium and is reprinted with permission.

Some commercial poultry processors have begun using a bacterial culture developed at the University of Arkansas that can sharply reduce the levels of pathogenic Salmonella and Campylobacter in live poultry.

This probiotic holds potential economic benefits for the industry as it improves its food safety efforts. And for poultry science researcher Billy Hargis, it’s still not enough.

"We have not bothered to patent this specific culture because we don’t think this is the best we can do," said Hargis, who is working on the Food Safety Consortium project in the UA Division of Agriculture. "We think we can find better cultures. This is just the best we have found so far. We think we can make it more effective."

The culture is unique because unlike previous cultures that have been tested, this is a "defined culture" – entirely derived from a single defined group of bacteria. "They’re known organisms, specific isolates that are well characterized," Hargis said.

The probiotic cultures are applied to the concept of competitive exclusion, in which different species compete to coexist. The plan in poultry production is to introduce the beneficial good bacteria into a live bird to drive out the harmful pathogenic bacteria. The federal Food and Drug Administration does not allow undefined cultures to be used in competitive exclusion, so the defined cultures produced by Hargis’ research group fill a need for industry.

"Our cultures are different because they can be truly defined and they can be reproduced from specific isolates that are stored back in the freezer," he said. "Then they can be propagated virtually forever."

At the poultry production farm level, the probiotic culture has been administered to chicks through their drinking water and by spray application. In addition to cutting down on pathogens in the live poultry, the culture has also been found in experiments to be effective in increasing the birds' weight, lowering production costs and reducing environmental contamination in poultry houses.

Emphasis on food safety is mostly concentrated at the processing plants where companies employ numerous techniques to eliminate bacterial contamination in the stages before a poultry product is packaged for sale. Processors can find their work made easier if they receive a supply of live birds at the plant that have already been exposed to pathogen-reducing exercises.

So producers of live poultry would have significant incentives to use a probiotic culture if it not only reduces pathogens but also provides financial benefits against the usual costs of doing business.

"Our premise has been that if we can do something that provides an economic advantage in addition to reducing foodborne pathogens, then we might see more rapid adoption of the technology," Hargis said. "We've had quite a bit of commercial adoption in the past year. We have several companies that are using the product at least intermittently."

In addition to seeking ways to perfect the probiotic culture, Hargis also wants to pursue more study of its ability to reduce carcass contamination. Some experiments have shown such reductions, but more data are needed.

"Salmonella does not occur by spontaneous generation in a processing plant. It comes in with the live animals. I think it’s a pretty good bet that reducing Salmonella in live animals will end up reducing Salmonella in food because that's where it comes from," Hargis explained. "Our focus now is to make the culture better and find other isolates that are more effective."

Article was published by the Food Safety Consortium and is reprinted with permission. The original article can be found at www.fsconsortium.net. The Food Safety Consortium consists of researchers from the University of Arkansas, Iowa State University and Kansas State University. The Consortium's charge is to conduct extensive investigation into all areas of poultry, beef and pork meat production, from the farm to the consumer's table.

Nobel Prize Given To Researchers Who Proved Bacteria Cause Ulcers

Two Australian researchers were awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recently for their work on ulcers. Dr. J. Robin Warren and Dr. Barry J. Marshall discovered that stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, rather than by emotional stress or spicy foods. They found that a spiral-shaped bacterium named Helicobacter pylori is the cause of this painful disease condition.

Lord Robert May of Oxford, president of the Royal Society, said the researchers "produced one of the most radical and important changes in the last 50 years in the perception of a medical condition. Their results led to the recognition that gastric disorders are infectious diseases, and overturned the previous view that they were physiological illnesses."

Actually, Dr. Warren and Dr. Marshall were heavily ridiculed by other researchers and by members of the pharmaceutical industry for their research. It is always amazing to see how much we humans are closed to new ideas. And, of course, the pharmaceutical industry wanted to keep making money from selling antacids for controlling the ulcer symptoms. Now doctors are permanently curing ulcers with antibiotics and bismuth compounds that kill the bacteria. (Of course, I have my own opinions about personally relying on good bacteria to keep the harmful bacteria out.)

Actually, it was difficult for the researchers to get Helicobacter pylori to grow in cultures in the laboratory. Dr. Marshall inadvertently left a culture dish out in his laboratory over the 1982 Easter holiday, and that allowed enough time for the slow-growing bacteria to thrive enough to be seen.

The Nobel committee said that scientists now know that Helicobacter pylori causes more than 90% of duodenal stomach ulcers and 80% of upper intestinal ulcers. The rest are pretty much caused by overuse of aspirin and similar drugs which eat away the lining of the stomach. Also, the discovery that ulcers were caused by a bacterium has led to further research on other diseases that might be also caused by bacteria. Some of the conditions where bacteria are suspected of being the culprit are Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis.

Pregnancy and Vulvovaginal Candidiasis

Dr. Ann Tan, a obstetrician and gynecologist from Singapore’s Women and Fetal Centre at the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said that you are more likely to contract vulvovaginal candidiasis if you are pregnant. She believes that pregnant women are more susceptible because there are more vulvovaginal secretions with pregnancy. Candida, like any fungus, loves moist conditions. Actually, I personally believe that the increase in the risk for vulvovaginal candidiasis comes also because you are producing more estrogen during pregnancy.

Vulvovaginal candidiasis is not life-threatening. "However," Dr. Tan said, "In patients who are immuno compromised by illnesses or treatments, vulvovaginal candidiasis can be the start of a whole systemic illness that can be very debilitating."

Even though pregnant women are more prone to developing vulvovaginal candidiasis, Dr Tan estimated that 20 per cent of women who are not pregnant have the yeast Candida albicans in the vagina all the time. Most do not develop symptoms. Dr. Tan recommended taking more probiotics to colonize the vagina with friendly bacteria and keep the candida in check. You might want to check out my article on Vaginal Yeast Infections from Candida albicans Healed.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the bacterial health of Lake Pontchartrain is not threatened

Everyone is worried about bacteria from the dead bodies in New Orleans contaminating the floodwater. Two million gallons of fetid waters from the flood are being pumped into Lake Pontchartrain every minute right now by the Army Corps of Engineers. There is no way to add chlorine or other disinfectants to the water. "You can't chlorinate the water going into the lake," said Edward Bouwer, a professor of environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University, "because that would create other problems." We certainly do not want to kill other forms of life in the lake!

An EPA analysis of the floodwater did show that it is a very potent mix of microorganisms and toxins such as lead. However, bacteria such as E. coli that infect humans will not live long. These bacteria cannot live in dead bodies and they will not last long when dispersed into the lake. Bouwer said, "Once they are outside of us, these pathogens do not survive too long."

Of course, the toxins such as lead are another matter!

Probiotic Bacteria in Birth Canal Protect Infants from Cavity-Causing Bacteria

Research is now showing that babies born by Caesarean section appear to be more prone to infection from cavity-causing bacteria than those who are born naturally. Babies who are delivered through the birth canal pick up probiotic bacteria from their mothers which give them some protection. In a study published in the September issue of The Journal of Dental Research by Dr. Yihong Li et al, if was found that one species of bacteria responsible for tooth decay, Streptococcus mutans, appears a year earlier in the mouths of babies born by Caesarean than it does in those who were born naturally.

I believe it is very important to give children probiotic bacteria, especially if they were born Caesarean. Unfortunately, probiotic bacteria do not have the same "stickiness" in the intestinal tract as those we get from our mothers. That means they need to be replaced daily with a supplement.

Click here for some of the latest research on good bacteria.