The impact of primary and secondary processing steps on Campylobacter concentrations on chicken carcasses and portions.

Campylobacteriosis is the most commonly notified foodborne disease in New Zealand and poultry meat is the major source for human infection. Carcasses and portions were sampled from key points along primary and secondary processing chains of three New Zealand poultry processors to determine the impact of processing steps on Campylobacter concentrations. Primary processing reduced Campylobacter concentrations on carcasses by almost 6-log; the biggest reduction was achieved by the spinchill, followed by the scald step.

Assessment of inflammatory resilience in healthy subjects using dietary lipid and glucose challenges.

Background: Resilience or the ability of our body to cope with daily-life challenges has been proposed as a new definition of health, with restoration of homeostasis as target resultant of various physiological stress responses. Challenge models may thus be a sensitive measure to study the body's health. The objective of this study was to select a dietary challenge model for the assessment of inflammatory resilience.

Molecular epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni in a geographically isolated country with a uniquely structured poultry industry.

In New Zealand the number of campylobacteriosis notifications increased markedly between 2000 and 2007. Notably, this country's poultry supply is different than that of many developed countries as the fresh and frozen poultry available at retail are exclusively of domestic origin. To examine the possible link between human cases and poultry, a sentinel surveillance site was established to study the molecular epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni over a 3-year period from 2005 to 2008 using multilocus sequence typing.