Deciphering The Molecular Basis of Environmental Persistence in Campylobacter Using a Systems Approach

空肠弯曲杆菌是一种引起人类食物中毒的细菌。他们通常是在吃了没有煮熟的家禽后感染上这种疾病，这些家禽中有一些细菌存活。在英国，每年大约有5万例由弯曲杆菌引起的肠胃炎病例报告，但更多的病例没有报告，因为大多数人在几天后自然康复。即便如此，由弯曲杆菌引起的疾病估计给英国经济造成了5亿英镑的损失。令人惊讶的是，这种细菌在家禽的肠道中茁壮成长，却不会引起任何疾病。控制弯曲杆菌引起的疾病可能需要若干相互关联的控制措施，包括减少家禽群中的携带，在尸体通过食物链时对其进行清洁和消毒，并鼓励适当烹调家禽。有证据表明，在英国出售的大多数家禽都被弯曲杆菌污染了。因此，本文将重点研究控制胴体污染的方法。我们已经发现，一些弯曲杆菌细胞能够抵抗抗菌化学物质的杀伤，限制了去污方法的有效性。在这个项目中，我们将研究弯曲杆菌细胞如何抵抗杀戮，我们如何以更有效的方式使用抗菌化学物质，以及我们如何改变一些农业实践来限制胴体污染。

Campylobacter jejuni is a bacterium that causes food poisoning in people. They usually catch the disease after eating poultry that has not been cooked properly, in which some bacteria survive. In the UK there are around 50,000 reported cases of gastroenteritis caused by Campylobacter each year - but many more cases go unreported because most people recover naturally after a few days. Even so, disease caused by Campylobacter costs the UK economy an estimated £500million. Surprisingly, the bacteria thrive in the guts of poultry, without causing any disease. The control of disease caused by Campylobacter is likely to require several interlinked control measures, including reducing carriage in poultry flocks, cleaning and decontaminating carcasses as they pass through the food chain and encouraging the appropriate cooking of poultry. It has been shown that most of the poultry on sale in the UK is contaminated with Campylobacter. Therefore, in this proposal we focus on ways of controlling carcass contamination. We have already found that some Campylobacter cells are able to resist killing by antibacterial chemicals, limiting the effectiveness of decontamination methods. In this project we will investigate how Campylobacter cells resist killing, how we might use antibacterial chemicals in more effective ways and how we might change some farming practices to limit carcass contamination.