CAMPYBRO · Control of Campylobacter infection in broiler flocks through two-steps strategy: nutrition and vaccination

Campylobacteriosis is the most frequently reported zoonotic illness at the EU in 2011, with 9 million human cases, and a total annual cost of 2.4 billion € per year in the EU27. Poultry meat is the major single source of human infection. Recent studies have shown that European broiler flocks have a high prevalence of Campylobacter colonization with an average of 71%. However, there is still no effective, reliable and practical strategy available to prevent or to reduce Campylobacter colonization in broilers. The objective of the present project is to develop a two-steps strategy in order to fight against Campylobacter in primary poultry production: first step nutritional approach, through the use of a synergic combination of different products such as plant extracts (PE), organic acids (OA), prebiotics (PRE), probiotics (PRO), and feed presentation (FP) through 4 work packages (WPs) in which trials with infected broilers and in experimental and real conditions will be done. In a second step, vaccination approach based on a novel development of a Campylobacter vaccine through the use of reverse vaccinology. The expected results of the project will be a short term strategy through new nutritional strategies based on a synergic combination of feed products and feed presentation and a medium term strategy through a novel vaccine to reduce the prevalence of Campylobacter in broiler flocks.The consortium is formed by five National poultry producers SME-AGs (PROPOLLO, FIA, CIDEF, NEPLUVI and BTT), two RTD (ANSES, and IMASDE) and three SMEs (MIKROLAB, REDONDO, and CZV).