Poultry and food safety
The section on poultry and food safety of the eleventh international congress of the World Veterinary Poultry Association held in Budapest, Hungary, from 20 to 22 August 1997, was used as a mid-term evaluation workshop of COST Action 917. The action, funded within the framework of the European programme for cooperation in scientific and technical research (COST) began in 1995 to address the issue of pathogenic micro-organisms in poultry and eggs. The proceedings of the workshop, in relation to the COST action, are now available in a publication. The objective of the action is to improve ways of reducing risks to the consumer of disease carried by poultry meat and eggs. The main aims can be summarised as follows: - The prevention of the infection of live birds; - The prevention of contamination of poultry-meat, eggs and egg products with pathogenic micro-organisms; - The application of new methods for end-product decontamination and preservation; - The development of monitoring procedures and rapid detection methods and tests. The publication contains the proceedings of the conference including the papers presented orally and the poster sessions. Specific subjects covered include new technology for end-product decontamination and novel detection methods and techniques to be used in epidemiological monitoring. Examples of the papers presented include: - The decontamination of carcass meat; - Industrial control programmes; - Chemical changes in poultry stored under different environmental conditions; - New opportunities to control bacterial infections of poultry.