# Presentation: 467592

## Effective Salmonella Control – Commercial Poultry Operations ©

- Bob O’Connor, D.V.M.
- Master Avian Medicine – U.GA
- Board Certification - American College of Poultry Veterinarians
- Director – Food Safety, Quality, Veterinary Health Services

- © 2008 Dr. Robert J. O’Connor, DVM
- All rights reserved.

## Salmonella

Interventions

Success

Choices

Sustainable

- Interventions
- Success
- Choices
- Sustainable

_**OVERVIEW**_

** ****- the problem**

-  - everything possible

** ****Short vs Long-term?**

- Separate Fact from Feeling

**Goal Attained...**

## Plant “D”

Salmonella

Sampling

Frequency

*Salmonella*
- Sampling
- Frequency

_***Salmonella***__** – the problem**_
***First Quarter 2005***

** ****- > 20% USDA performance STD**

-  - based on in-house samples/chiller exit

** ****- 1 sample per 22,000 carcasses**

-  - 125,000 birds per day

## Intervention Strategy -  “everything possible”(LIVE PRODUCTION) 

- Cleaning live-haul modules
- Acidifying Water in growout barns
- Probiotic use in Water of growout barns
- Probiotic gel in chick boxes at hatchery
- Probiotic in Feed
- Acidifying Litter of growout barns
- Complete Cleanout of Litter in growout barns
- Growth Promotant in Feed
- Proprionic Acid in Feed
- ABX in Feed
- Vaccinate – hatchery and field
- Breeder vaccination/ABX treatment

**Notes:**
One of the things we do early on in the process, while collecting “VOC”, we also document their perception of the problem.  This is a part of our process and is very important for a number of reasons.  Decisions are made based on perceptions.  If management team all have different perceptions, will have trouble making a decision.  For example:  when we asked people what do you think was responsible for making the difference, we got a number of different responses.

## Salmonella

Sampling

Frequency

- Sampling
- Frequency

_***Salmonella***__** – the problem solved**_
***Second Quarter 2005***

** ****- ~ 1⁄2 the USDA performance STD**

-  - based on in-house samples/chiller exit

** ****- 1 sample per 22,000 carcasses**

## Salmonella Project

***Salmonella***** Project**
**Final Report**
**March 8, 2006**

## Perceptions of the Problem

- 	Various members of the management team were interviewed to capture their perceptions of the sources of *Salmonella* and which interventions had been successful. There was no consistency in the perceptions:
*“**everything got better when we put in a new chiller” *
*“**it is all the things that we did at the grow-out farm that solved the problem”*
*“**my instinct tells me that it all comes in from the breeders”*
*“**I don’t know what made it better. I hope it stays that way”*
*“**It must be the vaccine”*

**Notes:**
One of the things we do early on in the process, while collecting “VOC”, we also document their perception of the problem.  This is a part of our process and is very important for a number of reasons.  Decisions are made based on perceptions.  If management team all have different perceptions, will have trouble making a decision.  For example:  when we asked people what do you think was responsible for making the difference, we got a number of different responses.

## Perceptions of the Problem

- 	Various members of the management team were interviewed to capture their perceptions of the sources of *Salmonella* and which interventions had been successful. There was no consistency in the perceptions:
*“**everything got better when we put in a new chiller” ***never did**
*“**it is all the things that we did at the grow-out farm that solved the problem” ***interventions were both plant/field**
*“**my instinct tells me that it all comes in from the breeders” ***breeders only 1 part of the solution**
*“**I don’t know what made it better. I hope it stays that way”*
*“**It must be the vaccine” ***broiler vaccine ruled out as ineffective...**

**Notes:**
One of the things we do early on in the process, while collecting “VOC”, we also document their perception of the problem.  This is a part of our process and is very important for a number of reasons.  Decisions are made based on perceptions.  If management team all have different perceptions, will have trouble making a decision.  For example:  when we asked people what do you think was responsible for making the difference, we got a number of different responses.

## Design of Experiment (DOE)

- 	The intention of the DOE is to assist in:
- Determining the effectiveness of  interventions at the Grow-out Farm level as related to performance measured by *Salmonella *results on carcass wash rinsate
- Assist in the management of withdrawal of interventions from this point in the value chain

## Salmonella Testing Results – post chiller

- control chart of *Salmonella* positives by week show a clear downward trend in the proportion of samples tested positives for *Salmonella* between April 2 2005 and August 20, 2005.
**March 6, 2005** changes to the interventions have been effective albeit not sustainable until the impact of the early April changes.
-  two dates of statistical sustainable significance, **April 12**, 2005 and **July 18**, 2005

**Notes:**
These 2 charts are representations of the same thing presented in slightly different way.  First one is snapshot of April to august while the second is for 52 weeks.  This data is Salmonella counts as measured in carcass wash and , in six sigma terms, represent the “Y” for this project.  In other words, success for Foster is measured as a decline is Salmonella at the carcass wash in final processing.

Although they have reached 0 counts by July, this is not sustainable from a cost perspective and we were brought in to help to identify how to bring a sustainable balance between cost and Salmonella counts.

## March 6 - Impact Of Chiller

-  **March 6, 2005** -    _**CARBON DIOXIDE**__ (CO2)_ was added to the chiller and _**CHLORINE (CaClO2)**_ to the red water.  From the dramatic drop in *Salmonella *positives on carcasses  at this point, it appears that these changes to the interventions were effective.
- These results were substantiated by the results of a Validation Study performed at the same facility, with bio-mapping of the process showing the various incidence levels of Salmonella.

**Notes:**
Now will talk about the 3 green lines that represent points of change in the process (at the processing plant).

First key date (green dotted line) March 6 – our analysis correlates this to changes made in the chiller.  Specifically, the addition of carbon dioxide to the chiller and chlorine to the red water.

Top chart, decline in Salmonella as the carcass moves through the process.  Carbon dioxide will drop the pH of the chiller and chlorine is more effective to reduce microbial counts in a low pH.  Chlorine in the red water also helps drop counts as red water is recycled back into the chiller.  NEED TO SHOW THEY MADE A CHANGE AND THAT IS MAKES SENSE.

This is a dotted green line that was contributory but not statistically significant and not sustainable alone.  This is because this solution was effective to a certain microbial load.  So, if the carcass’s carried to high a load into the chiller form downstream processes, these interventions were overwhelmed and unable to drop the counts to desired levels. With implementation of increased overflow in the scalder immediately prior to chillers in early April, the lower counts became sustainable.

## Slide 12

## Early April  – Impact of 3 Interventions

**Introduction of vaccinations at the hatchery (1)**
** **_**and**_** Field Vaccinations at Grow-out Farms (2)**
**Increased overflow in the scalders (3)**
- The drop associated with _**April 12, 2005**_ captures the combination of these 3 interventions
- The significance of increasing the **scalder overflow** is related to maintaining a lower microbial load in the scalder.
-  ***Salmonella***** vaccine** was introduced to the grow-out farms on February 9, 2005 as a follow up to the hatchery vaccinations which were started January 26. The impact of this program coincides with the decline in *Salmonella* positive results as seen in the Process Control Chart of *Salmonella *positive drag swabs at the farms. The timing of this intervention corresponds to the improvements seen at the processing plant in April.  DOE will challenge and examine this impact in detail.

**Notes:**
The second green line (solid) occurred in early April.  This marks a statistical change in the process performance.  We look at all of the interventions and found 3 directly correlate to this timeline.  Specifically, ........These all contribute to lowering microbial load downstream.

## July 18 - Impact of ABX

-  There was a sudden reduction in *Salmonella* positives to 0% (that was persistent for 5 weeks at the time of on-site visit on or about **July 18, 2005**.
-   This date corresponds directly to the expected 60-day lag time between treatment of breeder birds with antibiotic, and earliest processing of their progeny.
-   The concept of treating the breeder flocks with an antibiotic was gleaned from control stategies used with table-egg flocks to successfully eradicated _*S. enterididis*_
*  *This antibiotic, previously licensed for use in poultry, is no longer able to be used in this species as per a ruling by FDA.

## Interventions with no correlation to reduction of Salmonella

-  A strong correlation related to _**probiotic**_** use was **_***not***__ _found and it is difficult to determine definitively if and when this intervention would produce noticeable results down the value chain.
- There is not a statistically significant reduction in *Salmonella* counts on carcasses attributed to the implementation of _**live haul module washing**_ on October 1, 2004.

**Notes:**
We also use our analysis to help them to understand which interventions have no clear impact and thus only appear to contribute to the overall cost.  The outcome to these studies must provide sound scientific basis for making change from many perspectives including food safety, productivity and cost reduction in order to satisfy our clients.

## Key Learnings:  PART  I

- Chiller management (CO2/Cl2) can directly impact final levels in combination
- Need to consider effectiveness of interventions in combination and alone. Changes should be introduced in a controlled and systematic way.
- Instinct needs to be supported with information.
- Impact at the breeder level extends throughout the value chain

## Overview of DOE (design of experiment) – PART 2

- Follow up to the data analysis led to DOE- _PART II_ to test impact of eliminating interventions alone or in combination on grow-out farms providing birds to Plant E.
- 4 factors were identified:
- Vaccination (broiler)
- Litter Acid Treatment (+/-)
- Organic Acid (+/-)
- Probiotic (water:  +/-)
- Carcass rinse samples per house (test/control) were collected pre-chiller and post chiller and analyzed for presence of *Salmonella*.
- ONE HOUSE PROCESSED PER DAY AT NEARBY FACILITY (plant “E”) – same breeders/hatchery source/growout region
- All flocks were the progeny of birds treated by the regular vaccination program at the breeder lever
- Houses under “no vaccination” treatment did not receive day 1 or day 14 vaccine at the hatchery

## Results of DOE– PART IIEffect of Interventions

- 	The data was evaluated at the pre-chiller and post-chiller level
***Pre-Chiller:***
- There is a statistically _significant reduction_ in *Salmonella* with the use of litter treatment
- There is a statistically _significant reduction_ in *Salmonella* if the birds are the progeny of those previously treated with ABX
- The reduction in *Salmonella *positives with the use of either organic acid or probiotics is _not statistically significant_
- The effect of vaccination **is** statistically significant – but _in the opposite direction_ as expected (i.e. the probability of having *Salmonella* _**decreases when vaccination is not used**_)

## Salmonella vaccines for the poultry industry!

**SALMUNE****®**
**Live avirulent ST strain**

- LIVE VACCINE

## Test Combinations at Grow-out Farms

- ABX

## Test Combinations at Grow-out Farms

- ABX

## Results of DOE – PART II

- 	A total of 2100 carcass rinse samples were processed using secondary enrichment followed by BAX® analysis and cultural confirmation
- 	**27.65% of pre-chill samples tested positive** for 	*Salmonella *(282 of 1020)
- 	**4.44% of post-chill samples tested positive** for 	*Salmonella *(48 of 1080)

## Results of DOE – Effect of Interventions

**Post-chiller:**
- 	At the post chiller location at Plant E, the probability of having positive *Salmonella* is 0.14 times that of the probability at pre-chiller location (that is, **after the chiller**, the probability of having positive *Salmonella* on carcasses **drops by 86%).**

## CHILLER

- _CHILLER_
** ****pH Control**
** ****Free Chlorine **

## BREEDERS – starts here...

## Salmonella - %Positive – Yearly Plant Averages