Wind Speed and Landscape Context Mediate Campylobacter Risk among Poultry Reared in Open Environments

Foodborne pathogens cause over 9 million illnesses in the United States each year, and from chickens is the largest contributor. Rearing poultry outdoors without the use of antibiotics is becoming an increasingly popular style of farming; however, little is understood about how environmental factors...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animals (Basel) 2023-01, Vol.13 (3), p.492
Main Authors: Smith, Olivia M, Cornell, Kevin A, Crossley, Michael S, Crespo, Rocio, Jones, Matthew S, Snyder, William E, Owen, Jeb P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Agricultural practices
Agriculture
Animal diseases
Animal welfare
Antibiotics
Birds
Campylobacter
Chickens
Environmental assessment
Environmental factors
Environmental management
extensified farming
Farm management
Farming
Farms
Feces
Foodborne diseases
foodborne illness
Foodborne pathogens
free range
Health risks
Illnesses
Laboratories
Landscape
Livestock
open environment
Outdoors
Pasture
Pathogens
Poultry
Poultry farming
Risk
Salmonella
Sampling
Traditional farming
Wind
Wind speed
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Summary:Foodborne pathogens cause over 9 million illnesses in the United States each year, and from chickens is the largest contributor. Rearing poultry outdoors without the use of antibiotics is becoming an increasingly popular style of farming; however, little is understood about how environmental factors and farm management alter pathogen prevalence. Our survey of 27 farms in California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, USA, revealed a diversity of management practices used to rear poultry in the open environment. Here, we assess environmental and management factors that impact spp. prevalence in 962 individual chicken fecal samples from 62 flocks over a three-year period. We detected spp. in 250/962 (26.0%) of fecal samples screened, in 69.4% (43/62) of flocks, and on 85.2% (23/27) of farms. We found that spp. prevalence was predicted to increase in poultry on farms with higher average wind speeds in the seven days preceding sampling; on farms embedded in more agricultural landscapes; and in flocks typified by younger birds, more rotations, higher flock densities, and the production of broilers. Collectively, our results suggest that farms in areas with higher wind speeds and more surrounding agriculture face greater risk of spp. introduction into their flocks.
ISSN:2076-2615
2076-2615
DOI:10.3390/ani13030492