Review of the Food-borne Zoonoses Research ... - ARCHIVE: Defra

Project code: OZ0606
Project title: Protective immunity and competitive exclusion in
development of effective intervention products for
poultry.
Start date (dd/mm/yy): 01/04/2001
End date (dd/mm/yy): 31/03/2004
£232,145.00
Total cost:
Affiliation: Veterinary Laboratories Agency
Sub-contractor(s):
Project code: OZ0614
Project title: To develop vaccination approaches to the control of
Campylobacter in poultry.
Start date (dd/mm/yy): 01/04/2006
End date (dd/mm/yy): 31/03/2009
£267,629.00
Total cost:
Affiliation: Veterinary Laboratories Agency
Sub-contractor(s):
Abstract of research
Campylobacter jejuni is the leading cause of bacterial enteritis in the UK. The handling
and/or consumption of contaminated poultry meat is believed to be a risk factor. The
avian intestine is considered the natural environment for the organism, and up to 90% of
poultry flocks in the UK are colonised asymptomatically. Thus, reduction or elimination of
the organism in poultry in order to reduce the number of human cases is an objective of
Defra and FSA. A number of intervention strategies have been proposed, including
increased bio-security, vaccination and competitive exclusion (CE). Increased biosecurity
alone has so far failed to consistently reduce the extent of colonisation, so a
multi-pronged approach would seem to offer the most promise. Understanding host and
bacterial factors associated with colonisation should enable the development of defined,
targeted interventions. Early Defra-funded work at VLA (project OZ0129) demonstrated
that, despite being considered a commensal in chickens, C. jejuni elicits strong humoral
responses and that exposure can lead to a protective immunity. This work was furthered
in project OZ0606 by investigating the feasibility of vaccination. Work was also
undertaken to identify bacterial factors essential for colonisation. In addition, following on
from an earlier project (OZ0603) the potential for CE by homologous and heterologous
organisms was investigated. Results from this project indicated that vaccination was an
area worthy of further research, leading to the funding of OZ0614 which focuses entirely
on this area of intervention.
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