Delegates at the Act On Farm conference, held at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull, Birmingham, heard FSA board chairman Tim Bennett reaffirm the organisation’s stance on the disease.
He said: “Reducing the risk of campylobacter is the FSA’s top priority, and reducing food poisoning as a result of the disease is equally as important. We’re seeing tangible progress after a period of unpromising results.”
The one-day conference was a joint initiative between the NFU/FSA and British Poultry Veterinary Association (BVPA).
Download slides from the conference here
Although cases of the disease have fell from 27 per cent in 2008 to 10 per cent in 2015, Mr Bennett said he’s ‘confident that the number will fall’ further in the future.
Key areas to focus on, he added, included the importance of biosecurity and consumer education, specifically around washing raw poultry meat.
“We know there is no silver bullet, because if there was, we would’ve fired it a long time ago,” he said.
“We’re not likely to have a vaccine in the near future, so every possible intervention we can implement that reduces the colonisation of this disease, with others along the chain, is important in achieving a safer poultry meat sector.
“It’s important that we, as an industry, take ownership and responsibility of what is a major public health concern, protecting ourselves and our consumers. We want to be able to produce high quality and healthy birds, without campylobacter.”
Furthermore, vet Phil Hammond said “Understanding the immune system and its integration with campylobacter will be key in the future as it may allow us to implement better controls, including vaccines.”
But with the complexity of the disease, including a long list of different strains, Mr Hammond said the industry was ‘not quite there’ when it came to producing a vaccine.