ATHENS, Ga. — Broiler production may not be the first industry that comes to mind when thinking of ways to reduce U.S. health care costs. But scientists at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) station in Athens have identified a protein that could lead to a vaccine reducing bacterial food poisoning from chicken.

The target: Campylobacter, a bacteria common in the gut of birds, one of the most common causes of human diarrheal illness in the United States. Consuming the bacteria in raw or undercooked poultry, or food contaminated by raw poultry, results in some $1.5 billion-$2 billion per year in health care costs, according to the USDA.

That makes Campylobacter one of the five most costly pathogens of foodborne illness in the country. Scientists have long sought to reduce or conquer the most common strain, Campylobacter jejuni.

"Many strategies for Campylobacter intervention during production and process have been extensively investigated. Among them, vaccination of food animals to control infectious diseases is one of the most effective means," said Hueng-Yueh Yeh, ARS scientist and lead investigator on the research project.

Yeh’s research used DNA technology to isolate proteins from the genes of Campylobacter. "We then wanted to use these recombinant proteins to monitor chicken immune responses to this bacterium and hope to discover novel protein antigens for potential vaccine development," he said.

The ARS team monitored responses in proteins found in the bacterial flagella, parts of the bacteria used for movement. Flagella are made up of more than 35 proteins, and the researchers wanted to know how those reacted to Campylobacter sera from older broilers and breeders. "This type of approach to look for novel antigens in the post-genomic era has been used in many human pathogens," said Yeh.

They had some luck. One of the proteins in the flagellum, the "capping protein" called FliD, reacted strongly to the sera. This meant the protein induced antibody production. When one-day-old chicks were injected with the FliD protein, the chicks produced antibody to the protein. That confirmed the protein could be a candidate to carry a vaccine.

Vaccines controlling Campylobacter in the chicken’s gut, on the farm, would keep the bacteria from ever ending up on uncooked chicken – reducing human illness and decreasing health care costs of food poisoning from the bacteria. But while this research represents a step in the right direction toward controlling the most common bacterial strain, there are more questions to be answered, especially if whether what works in the lab will work in the bird’s gut.

Another important question, if it does work in the bird’s gut, is whether the antibody will last long enough there to control C. jejeuni until the bird leaves the farm.

So, further studies will evaluate the protein for practical use and efficacy, said Yeh.

The ARS research team included Yeh, Kelli Hiett, J. Eric Line and Bruce Seal at the USDA Richard B. Russell Agricultural Research Center in Athens. The U.S. Poultry and Egg Assoc. funded the research.