FARM INTERVENTIONS CASE STUDY 3: Other pre-harvest interventions: phages; vaccines, probiotics (competitive exclusion), diet manipulation

Introduction by: Diana Meemken & Sophie Kittler

Food safety optimization based on process control means an interplay of pre- and post-harvest interventions. Pre-harvest interventions can be categorized into external and internal biosecurity measures. Those meat safety interventions, that are the focus of this workshop, are primarily internal biosecurity measures. That implies, that these interventions are intended to reduce the spread of infections from animal to animal within a herd.

Competitive exclusion approaches, probiotics, vaccination, diet manipulation, and the use of bacteriophages should be mentioned here. The modes of action of these interventions vary widely, but they have in common that they reduce pathogen multiplication in the animal and thus counteract pathogen spread and introduction in the food processing plant.

The aim of the workshop is to compile important herd based interventions against relevant zoonoses in food producing animals and to evaluate them in terms of advantages and disadvantages. For the evaluation of an intervention, besides the costs and the efficacy of a measure, also the legal regulations especially for bacteriophages and competitive exclusion as microorganism-based interventions are relevant evaluation criteria.

On the one hand, the workshop participants are to deal with the interventions discussed with regard to the corresponding mode of action, the financial or labor input, the effectiveness and the disadvantages on the basis of the publications given in the reference list. On the other hand, they are to present interventions that have been applied and successfully reduce foodborne zoonoses in their country. During this workshop, participants will gain knowledge of various pre-harvest meat safety interventions as well as insight into practical issues related to the approval and implementation of these measures.

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See what’s next

FARM INTERVENTIONS CASE STUDY 4: Pre-harvest interventions in different European countries: Campylobacter and Salmonella case (role of competent authorities and science)