COLLEGE STATION – In the near future, consumers may feel a little better about the quality of the eggs and poultry they and their loved ones enjoy because of a filtration method recently developed by a Texas A&M University graduate student.
Paige Reynolds, who is earning her master’s degree in poultry science this May, created the filter procedure in order to detect and eradicate harmful microbes.
Microbes such as salmonella and E Coli are pathogens that cause sickness and death in both animals and humans. Salmonella attacks and multiplies inside the digestive tract and is responsible for 40,000 deaths annually.
“Symptoms include bloody stools, diarrhea, severe abdominal cramping and sometimes vomiting,” said Reynolds. “Over $1 billion dollars is spent each year on medical costs and lost wages from salmonella poisoning alone.”
Reynolds began her research in an attempt to find a more productive alternative to the “direct plate method,” the current procedure in microbial detection. This expensive application often takes from three to six days to obtain results.
The filtration procedure is inexpensive, takes about 24 hours and detects more microbes than the direct plate method.
“We began the experiments with a known number of salmonella. When we washed (the eggs), we would know 50 or more microbes were in the (wash) bag. We would only find one or two from the direct plate method,” said Reynolds. “Sometimes we would find between eight and 10 on the filter yet find none on the plate.”
Filtration methods are being researched throughout the country; however, this research is the first of its kind to yield such a short detection time.
Reynolds said more research is needed before her findings may be used in the main market of poultry production and processing.
“Any developments like this take about 10 years to implement because you have to go through all of the channels and the government. More research is needed, and it needs to be applied commercially to see if it is really viable or not and if it may be applied in all fields of food production.”
Reynolds anticipates the research may eventually be applied to a wide spectrum of the food industry.
“We will be repeating the initial procedures and applying them to different things, such as beef or swine,” said Reynolds. “Although the procedures may be used to detect microbial contamination in ground beef or ice cream, more testing methods need to be developed because it is impossible to test these foods with the current means.”
Reynolds, who was born and raised in Dallas, came to Texas A&M with a strong desire to study business, yet she decided to go into poultry science when she saw how beneficial industry research could be to consumers.
She is planning to begin work on her doctorate in microbiology next fall.
“I would like to see my research implemented in the future,” she said. “I think it would help save lives.”
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