Occurrence of Escherichia coli in cloacal samples of broiler chicken from Kollam and Kottayam districts

Abstract

Foodborne pathogens like E. coli are considered as the major causes of foodborne illness in humans worldwide. The present study was undertaken to determine the occurrence of E. coli in cloacal samples of broiler chicken from Kollam and Kottayam districts. The occurrence of E. coli in cloacal samples from broiler chicken was 76.5 per cent from Kollam and 79 per cent from Kottayam through culture techniques. Out of the total 400 cloacal swab samples collected from broiler chicken, 77.8 per cent were positive for E. coli. The samples which were subjected to conventional culture techniques were further analysed for PCR confirmation. The study revealed that, 56.5 and 67 per cent samples were positive for E. coli from Kollam and Kottayam, respectively. An overall occurrence of 61.8 per cent out of 400 samples were confirmed for E. coli by PCR. One Health approach can be used as a suitable tool to combat the foodborne zoonotic diseases, since it is an integrated, multidisciplinary, holistic approach. Proper implementation of biosecurity measures in farms is mandatory to control foodborne zoonotic diseases.

Keywords

• e. coli
• broiler chicken
• one health