Bioinformatics could reduce pathogens in poultry processing

A rapidly emerging tool called bioinformatics could improve the way poultry scientists monitor bacterial load and other contamination hotspots during processing.

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A rapidly emerging tool called bioinformatics could improve the way poultry scientists monitor bacterial load and other contamination hotspots during processing.

What is bioinformatics?

Bioinformatics combines computational and statistical approaches in order to analyze biological data, such as genome sequencing. A rapidly emerging field of science, it is already in use as a tool to help monitor, identify and track poultry flock health.

“Bioinformatics software converts raw sequence data – the data that comes immediately right off of the sequencer – into graphics and stats that allow us to form a biological interpretation of what’s going on,” explained Steven C. Ricke, a professor in food science at the University of Arkansas.

Ricke discussed the delivery of informatics to poultry processing on July 20 during the 2020 Poultry Science Association Virtual Annual Meeting.

“The food industry is undergoing a generational change and it’s becoming very apparent that bioinformatics is going to become an important part of what we’re doing,” he said.

How can it be used in poultry processing?

Potentially dangerous pathogens, such as E. coli and Salmonella, lurk in hotspots throughout poultry and meat processing facilities. Poultry scientists are constantly trying to find new strategies for preventing contamination to keep the food supply chain safe.

“The level of contact between microbes and poultry throughout the supply chain is highly complex and multifaceted. In other words, there is opportunity for contamination at every step of moving a product from the farm to transportation to processing plant to retail or foodservice to the home,” Ricke said.

Ricke’s team developed a procedure called microbiome mapping to monitor bacterial load in processing facilities. Microbiome mapping uses advanced next generation sequencing techniques to learn more about the bacterial populations and bioinformatics to analyze the data.

“It’s important to monitor for bacterial load throughout processing. Are the numbers going up or down? Where do the spikes occur?” said Ricke.

“We took this a step further and decided to learn more about these bacterial populations. Do shifts in bacterial populations occur at certain steps while the birds are being processed?”

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