How Campylobacter Infects Poultry
Scientists at the University of Ulster have discovered that Campylobacter in intensive-farming poultry farm water supplies are hiding themselves in protozoa, making the Campylobacter bacteria impervious to traditional cleaning and disinfection methods.
"We discovered that the bacteria are hiding in Trojan horses called protozoa. This group of larger microbes, which live in water and feed on bacteria, are like the ones you can see through microscopes when you go pond dipping as a child", says Dr Snelling. "We found many different protozoa in the farm water supplies of intensively reared poultry, and we also found the Campylobacter bacteria".
The poultry farms were intensiveThe scientists discovered through laboratory experiments that protozoa will absorb Campylobacter, but do not kill or digest them as expected. The bacteria can stay alive inside the protozoa for about two days, even when disinfectant is added. If Campylobacter were disinfected without any protozoa present then they were quickly killed.
The public health is endangered by intensive farming. The focus has been primarily on waste management and the impact on the environment of millions of pounds of waste being produced by massive farms. The public has not been made aware of the microscopic dangers brewing on these farms. In this case, Campylobacter bacteria have found a way to use the conditions of intensive farming to protect themselves from disinfectants. These bacteria infect the chicken, which then infect the public. What should be even more disturbing is that there are other microscopic problems brewing on these farms that we don't know about yet, and microscopic problems can turn into world-wide pandemic problems.