Effects of Common Litter Management Practices on the Prevalence of Campylobacter jejuni in Broilers

Campylobacter is an important foodborne pathogen and is naturally found in chickens. During broiler production, litter can become contaminated with Campylobacter when birds defecate, and this litter, in some countries, is typically reused for the next flock, potentially causing cross-contamination. The goal of this experiment was to observe if reusing contaminated litter could spread Campylobacter between flocks and to observe if common litter treatments could prevent this cross-contamination. To determine this, a flock of birds was inoculated with Campylobacter jejuni and allowed to naturally contaminate the litter for 42 days. After grow-out, birds were terminated, and litter was given five treatments: uninoculated fresh litter, untreated re-used litter, composted re-used litter, re-used litter treated with sodium bisulfate (45 kg/305 m²), and re-used litter composted and treated with sodium bisulfate (45 kg/305 m²). A second flock was placed on the litter, grown for 42 days, and tested for C. jejuni prevalence. Following inoculation of the first flock, high prevalence of C. jejuni was observed; however, after a 19-day down-time between flocks, no C. jejuni was detected in any samples from the second flock. These results indicate that re-used litter was not a significant reservoir for cross-contamination of broilers when provided a significant down-time between flocks.