Pre-harvest reduction of foodborne pathogens in food animals

Diamond V's unique, all-natural products, resulting from more than 70 years of scientific research and development, offer unmatched benefits and solutions for food animal production. As published in over 125 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, the pre-harvest technologies of Diamond V products promote immunity, animal health, and human food safety while optimizing performance of poultry, pigs, dairy and beef cattle, aquaculture species, and other food animals.

Diamond V recently announced the patent-pending use of Diamond V Original XPC™ (XPC) as a "method for foodborne pathogen reduction in livestock." As described in the pending patent, feeding XPC throughout food animal production resulted in reduced prevalence and numbers of Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry, as measured in the animal, production environment, and processing plant. Additional research conducted in other species has shown that Diamond V technology supports optimal immunity, health, and performance when animals are challenged with foodborne pathogens.

Healthy animals are critical to food safety, security, affordability, and quality. Pre-harvest control of foodborne pathogens enhances animal wellness, animal welfare, and product safety prior to processing.

Use of Diamond V technology, including XPC, benefits food animal production and the food industry in multiple ways:

Food safety has increased as a priority for federal and state regulatory agencies. Significant changes in federal food safety and feed production regulations have occurred with the passage of the U. S. Food Safety and Modernization Act. Activity at the state level has involved the passage of labeling laws and animal care legislation.

Despite significant progress by the poultry and red meat industries in reducing foodborne pathogens, the rates of human illness persist. Pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Escherichia coli are frequently associated with consumption of animal protein products, and are often cited among the top five pathogens causing foodborne illness in the U.S.15,19 Companies producing foods of animal origin must implement effective pre-harvest food safety programs in order to lower the risk of human illness.

Responsibility for foodborne pathogen control (e.g., Salmonella, Campylobacter, etc.) lies within each link in the food chain, from farm to fork, in order to produce a safe, sustainable, and abundant food supply. Research-proven technologies must be key components in a company's food safety plans.

Research shows that the pre-harvest pathogen contamination of animals, especially poultry, correlates directly with the post-harvest presence of pathogens found in the processing plant and in food products. ^{8, 12, 14, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24}

Many efforts to reduce pathogen numbers in food animals and products, including chemicals applied during processing, are not completely effective. Furthermore, chemicals used during processing are expensive and may have unintended effects.

While there is no "silver bullet" to completely eliminate foodborne pathogens, a multi-step food safety program, including pre-harvest mitigation at the farm level, has been shown to be most effective.

Diamond V's pending patent is based on numerous studies conducted at many research institutions that considered the challenges posed by several different strains of Salmonella and Campylobacter. The resulting body of scientific knowledge on the effects of XPC on foodborne pathogen reduction represents the largest known collection of pre-harvest research projects. These projects are the replicable work of leading investigators at various research locations using varying methods. The quality, consistency, and reliability of these multiple sources of data further support Diamond V's unique pending patent.

Research detailed in the pending patent has demonstrated that feeding XPC to egg laying hens, meat-type chickens, and turkeys helped reduce the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter isolated from birds and their environment. Research also found that numbers of both Salmonella and Campylobacter isolated from positive birds were reduced.

The patent-pending use of XPC, described below, introduces technology vital for the food industry today and for the foreseeable future. XPC provides an effective, all-natural approach to improve the safety and quality of poultry, eggs, pork, beef, fish, and milk by helping reduce incidence, colonization, and shedding of foodborne pathogens.

Listed below are brief summaries of research studies described in Diamond V's pending patent "Method for Foodborne Pathogen Reduction in Livestock."

Addition of XPC in feed helps result in reduced Salmonella numbers or load in poultry, as summarized below:

A. Sixteen houses of broilers were commercially grown with or without XPC and slaughtered at approximately 46 days of age. At processing, carcass rinse at rehang was sampled from 25 birds per house. The Salmonella number (load) detected on the Salmonella-positive carcass of the XPC-fed bird (n = 1) was numerically less at 2.20 log₁₀ (log) MPN (most probable number), compared to the average of 2.43 log MPN per carcass for control birds (n = 17), equal to approximately 40% reduction of Salmonella.¹

B. Commercial turkey toms were raised to 20 weeks of age and fed XPC or control diets and ceca were collected in the processing plant. The mean Salmonella number of the culture-positive samples was 0.43 log lower in XPC-fed birds compared to controls (P = 0.017), which equaled more than 60% reduction of Salmonella. ¹

C. XPC helped significantly suppress (P < 0.05) the growth of Salmonella in broilers fed antibiotic-free commercial broiler diets (0-42 days), with and without the addition of XPC, resulting in Salmonella reduction of more than 99%.²

D. In an in vitro broiler chicken intestinal model system, XPC reduced Salmonella Enteritidis 3 logs by 24 hours in comparison to the control culture without XPC, amounting to reduction of more than 99%.3

E. Using cecal content from 6 week old broilers, XPC helped provide a rapid inhibition of S. Typhimurium that was significantly reduced (P < 0.05) by more than 3 logs compared to the Salmonella colony forming units per milliliter (CFU/ml) in the control culture (feed + cecal contents), which was equivalent to more than 99% reduction of Salmonella. ³

F. Pen-raised turkey hens inoculated with S. Typhimurium at 1 day of age and S. Heidelberg at 56 days of age and fed XPC had significantly lower (P < 0.05) average MPN of Salmonella compared to hens fed control diets (1.1 vs. 2.9 log, respectively) when processed at 84 days, amounting to 98% reduction.⁴²

G. XPC helped significantly suppress (P < 0.001) the growth of S. Arizonae in turkeys by 0.5 log compared to the control, resulting in Salmonella reduction of nearly 70%.¹⁰

H. S. Heidelberg growth was significantly suppressed (P < 0.001) by 0.4 log, or about 60%, in an in vitro poultry model compared to the control treatment without XPC inclusion.¹⁰

I. Growth of S. Enteritidis CFU was significantly suppressed by more than 1 log, or greater than 90%, by the addition of XPC to fecal inoculant derived from hen excreta (P < 0.001) in an in vitro poultry intestinal model.¹¹

J. Floor pen-raised pullets fed XPC had significantly lower S. Enteritidis numbers (about 87% reduction) in the ceca at 34 days compared to control pullets (3.6 vs. 4.5 log CFU, respectively; P < 0.0001).¹³

Addition of XPC in feed helps result in reduced Salmonella prevalence, as measured in the poultry processing plant:

Addition of XPC in feed produced research results showing reduced Salmonella prevalence, as measured in poultry ceca samples:

Unprecedented research, as described in the pending patent, suggests pre-harvest implementation of XPC may significantly reduce Campylobacter numbers in poultry:

Research findings suggest pre-harvest use of XPC also may significantly reduce Campylobacter prevalence in poultry:

 

Research findings suggest feeding XPC increases volatile fatty acid (VFA) levels, specifically butyrate:

Further studies of Diamond V Original products support the pending patent, "Method for Foodborne Pathogen Reduction in Livestock," as summarized below:

Dairy calves fed Diamond V SmartCare® in the liquid milk replacer and Original XPC in the starter feed, then challenged with S. Typhimurium, had less colonization of intestinal Salmonella and reduced time of Salmonella shedding compared to control calves. Also, calves receiving Diamond V products had significantly (P < 0.05) less diarrhea and fever, rumens that were more developed, and enhanced weight gain compared to calves fed control diets.⁵

After a direct challenge with Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli), beef heifers fed either Original XP™ (XP) or a control diet without XP cleared faster and had reduced (P < 0.05) prevalence and numbers of E. coli than control-fed heifers. Measurements included:

Young pigs fed a nursery diet with or without Original XPC were challenged with S. Typhimurium. Pigs fed XPC were found to have increased (P < 0.05) populations of beneficial Bacteroidetes and Lactobacillus bacteria in the gut and improved body weight gain after Salmonella infection compared to control pigs.¹⁶

Pearson, A.D., M. Greenwood, T.D. Healing, D. Rollins, M. Shahamat, J. Donaldson, and R.R. Colwell. 1993. Colonization of broiler chickens by waterborne Campylobacter jejuni. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 59: 987-996.