A risk of campylobacter infections from chickens
Campylobacter is the main cause of food poisoning in the European Union and is transmitted to humans from animals. It is mostly found in white meat – chicken and pork – and is destroyed if the meat is well-cooked. In Greece there have not been many cases reported of this type of infection, not because they do not exist but because of a lack of data available. More than 380,000 people in the EU are infected every year by zoonoses (diseases transmitted from animals to humans), usually in food. According to information recently released by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), campylobacteriosis overtook salmonellosis as the most reported animal infection transmitted to humans in the EU. In 2005, the number of campylobacter infections rose by 7.8 percent to 197,363. Salmonella remains a high-risk factor, however, with 176,395 cases of salmonellosis being reported in 2005, from eggs, chicken and pork. Resistant The most worrying aspect of campylobacter is that it cannot be fought with existing antibiotics. According to the European Union report, 80 percent of the microbes found were resistant to antibiotics. «This poses a particular risk to humans due to possible treatment failure,» the report says. The reason for this is the unrestricted use of antibiotics that has led to the development of resistant strains of these microbes. Campylobacter is carried in birds’ wings and in animal fur and does not usually affect the host’s health. However, it can be extremely dangerous for human health if ingested. «This particular microbe survives at body temperature. When we refrigerate food it becomes dormant but if the temperature rises to the appropriate level it could become active again,» said Professor Giorgos Nichas of the Agricultural University of Athens. It is a microbe that causes food poisoning and is dangerous for anyone with a weak immune system. «In rare cases it can cause paralysis of the nervous system, but in 99 percent of cases it takes the form of food poisoning,» he added. According to Dimitris Timbis, a professor in the Department of Food Microbiology in the Food Technology School of the Athens Technical College, the greatest risks lie in the way food is handled and cooked. «We should used separate surfaces and cutting implements when preparing meat and vegetables, or raw and cooked meat,» said Timbis. He warned that people who have been cured of the disease can be carriers for up to seven to nine weeks, so they should not handle food. The reason these microbes have become so widespread, according to Nichas, is simply that there is now a better change of recognizing and recording cases. «So far we have managed to identify only 1-2 percent of microorganisms under the microscope. That is why it seems as if we are continually discovering new risks,» he said. Also the fact that we eat out more often than in the past increases the likelihood of falling victim to someone who does not handle food properly. Many see the spread of zoonoses such as salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis as examples of the problems involved in mass production, where chickens are packed close together and so are more easily infected by those around them. Nichas says there is no evidence for this, but according to the EFSA, the fact that campylobacter has developed a resistance to antibiotics is a clear indication that this is the case.
