As part of that, CamCon will investigate the effect of different climates and environments onCampylobacter epidemiology, study the dynamics of transmission, develop and evaluate pre-harvest intervention strategies, develop novel and cost-effective surveillance, screening and certification methods, and transfer to other parts of Europe the knowledge from Northern Europe, which has a long-standing tradition for Campylobacter control.

The proposed approach includes sampling and recommendations for control measures, implementation of rapid tests and producer education including educational material, guidelines and standards on how to produce such “low-risk broilers”.

Work plan
A consortium of 10 participants from seven countries, including national diagnostic laboratories, institutions providing research and advisory services and universities, will make the core group of a 4-year project. Access to chicken farms is ensured through each participating research institute at the local level.

The scientific work is organized in five Work Packages which will

• study the epidemiology of Campylobacter in broilers in selected regions and climates of the EU and compare the sub-types found in chickens;
• investigate the effectiveness and efficacy of pre-harvest interventions;
• implement on-site, telecommunication-based, hands-free detection methods and develop quantitative screening methods;
• develop and evaluate intervention methods in primary production;
• develop “second-generation” farm-to-fork contamination models for more precise quantitative risk assessments; and
• prepare guidelines, educational videos, Internet-based tools, and propose EU standards for producers, regulators and consumers, which are based on the results of the research carried out in WP1 through WP4.

Homepage: www.camcon-eu.net

Coordinator: Merete Hofshagen, Norwegian Veterinary Institute, Norway

Partners:

• Norwegian Veterinary Institute, Norway
• Technical University of Denmark
• Liverpool University, UK
• Utrechr University, the Netherlands
• Dianova, Denmark
• Central Veterinary Institute, the Netherlands
• University of Minho, Portugal
• University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
• CReSA, Spain
• National Veterinary Research Institute, Poland

Total cost € 4,166,407
EC contribution € 2,999,940