Dr. Bill Potter
Dr. Potter received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in poultry science from the University of Arkansas, and a B.S. in animal science with an MBA from Texas A&M. His areas of expertise include food safety, food quality and pathogen intervention technologies.
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a new initiative aimed at reducing Salmonella illnesses linked to poultry production and processing. As stated by USDA Deputy Undersecretary Sandra Eskin, “Reducing Salmonella infections attributable to poultry is one of the Department’s top priorities.”
FSIS is initiating several key activities to gather the data and information necessary to support future action and move closer to the national target of a 25% reduction in Salmonella illnesses by 2030. There are three major components of this initiative:
- Increasing the emphasis on Salmonella interventions preharvest at the farm
- Examining how Salmonella quantification tests can be incorporated to better understand the loads of Salmonella in poultry
- Focusing efforts to reduce Salmonella serotypes having the greatest virulence factors posing the greatest public health risks
Salmonella Reduction in Poultry Processing and Production
The USDA intends to seek stakeholder feedback on pilot projects in poultry slaughter and processing plants, with a key component being to encourage preharvest controls to reduce Salmonella coming into the slaughterhouse. With this renewed focus on preharvest interventions to reduce Salmonella, there are a number of interventions being evaluated.
It takes a comprehensive preharvest program, with a combination of interventions tailored to minimize diseases, to help decrease food safety risks. Elanco looks forward to assisting the industry in navigating through these new approaches to Salmonella reduction. Here are few ways Elanco’s Food Safety team is already responding:
- Helping companies optimize their intervention programs using a scientific multi-modal approach, from preharvest through processing
- Organizing and administering pilot studies and field demonstrations to evaluate preharvest interventions and/or their effectiveness
- Providing common-sense Food Safety and Quality Assurance experience to suggest practical models for pathogen monitoring and management from preharvest through processing
- Working with poultry companies to implement quantitative approaches to Salmonella monitoring, which can be used to complement prevalence and serotype testing
- Assisting poultry farms with optimizing the right balance of vaccines, probiotics, pest control, and litter management to reduce Salmonella
For assistance with next steps in response to this announcement, please contact your Elanco Technical Consultant. Learn more about how the Elanco Food Safety team can help you by visiting Working Together for Food Safety and for more information.
Tags
Salmonella
Food Safety
Vaccine
¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC investigation notice-Salmonella outbreak linked to raw turkey products. 2019. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/s-0215-salmonella-outbreak-raw-turkey.html
