In a world first, a trial of BioCoteŽ protected chicken crates for Anglia Autoflow Ltd, a live bird handling company, has shown that silver antimicrobial protection can help reduce the risk of cross-contamination of harmful Campylobacter amongst poultry flocks.
Campylobacter is the most common cause of food poisoning in humans and is commonly found in the guts of chickens. Transportation crates used to carry chickens from farms to processing plants are known to get contaminated with Campylobacter and can cross-contaminate and infect unrelated flocks. Anglia Autoflow Ltd, the UK’s leading supplier of poultry transportation crates, has introduced a new range with BioCoteŽ antimicrobial protection. Once BioCoteŽ silver ion technology is incorporated into the crates at the manufacturing stage they can inhibit the growth of bacteria, such as Campylobacter, on their surface, reducing the risk of crates becoming a source of contamination and infection in the poultry industry.
In the trial, BioCote Ltd compared the levels of bacteria and Campylobacter contaminating standard crates to those found on BioCoteŽ-treated crates. Swabs were collected in triplicate from ten treated and ten untreated crates at key points throughout the crate decontamination process: pre-wash (once the live birds were removed), post-wash, post-sanitisation and then 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours post-sanitisation (representing when the crates were re-circulated to pick up new flocks).
Before entering the decontamination process, the average counts of total bacteria were more than 14 times higher on standard crates than BioCoteŽ-treated crates.
At all points of the decontamination process BioCoteŽ-treated crates were shown to be considerably less contaminated with bacteria than standard crates. These results suggest that BioCoteŽ protection is sustainable throughout the cycle of the crates, from contact with flocks, through the decontamination process to re-contact with the flocks.
At all points of the decontamination process fewer Campylobacters were detected contaminating the treated crates, compared to untreated crates. At the end of the decontamination process, when crates make contact with new flocks, there was considerably less Campylobacter present on BioCoteŽ-treated crates compared to standard ones. Of the 90 swabs taken from both crate types, 44 from the untreated crates contained Campylobacter, compared to only one from the BioCoteŽ-treated crates. With less Campylobacter contaminating the crates when they make contact with flocks, these results suggest that BioCoteŽ can help reduce the risk of cross-contamination.
BioCote’s microbiologist Richard Hastings comments: “This is an important and innovative use of antimicrobial technology and shows how BioCoteŽ protection can help reduce the risk of cross contamination during the poultry transportation process. Crates with BioCoteŽ protection harboured less bacteria and Campylobacter, which suggests that they are less likely to pass bacteria from flock to flock.
The results of this trial have implications for the food industry as they suggest there is potential to incorporate BioCoteŽ into other products used in food production to assist in reducing the risks of cross contamination.
“Our results showed that levels of bacteria increased one hour after the crates were cleaned, indicating that cleaning had no long-term decontamination effect. With cleaning and sanitisation ineffective in eradicating Campylobacter, it’s clear that BioCoteŽ could act as an additional decontamination solution, being more effective than cleaning alone.”
Anglia Autoflow Ltd’s Sales Director, Barry Landymore, added: “By using BioCoteŽ technology we hope to reduce the number of Campylobacter on our crates, leading to cleaner, more hygienic and ultimately safer poultry transportation. By reducing the level of Campylobacter being transported around the poultry rearing and processing system, we aim to reduce the risks of Campylobacter outbreaks faced by farmers and food processors.
Campylobacter is a major cause of food poisoning so any intervention to reduce the risk of Campylobacter being transmitted from poultry to humans is necessary. This study suggests there are a number of benefits of incorporating BioCoteŽ into poultry transportation crates to help meet this objective”.
BioCoteŽ technology is based on silver, which is a safe, natural antimicrobial, commonly used in wound dressings and surface-coated catheters to reduce the risk of infection.
BioCoteŽ inhibits the growth of a wide range of bacteria on the surface of products, making them cleaner and more hygienic to use. BioCote Ltd works with a growing number of manufacturers supplying the food processing sector to incorporate this cutting edge technology into their products at the manufacturing stage.
13 August 2009
BioCote® proven to work in real-life environments.
As experts in our field, BioCote Ltd is leading the way in research and evidence-based studies to demonstrate the antimicrobial performance of BioCote® protected products not only in lab tests but also in real life environments.
