The Feildbarn

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios are leading an initiative to find an alternative use for the disused field barns of the Yorkshire Dales that will retain for prosperity these beautifully crafted structures roughened and enhanced by time. David Littlefield describes the pilot project in Lower Wharfedale, near Skipton, in which a timber pod has been created to provide basic accommodation for holidaymakers seeking a countryside break close to nature. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characterization of Escherichia coli from raw poultry in Belgium and impact on the detection of Campylobacter jejuni using Bolton broth

A comparative study examining Bolton broth and Preston broth for enrichment and reliable detection of Campylobacter jejuni (both healthy and freeze stressed cells) was performed. Tested as pure cultures, Bolton broth enabled faster resuscitation and growth of C. jejuni compared to Preston broth. When C. jejuni was co-incubated with extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing Escherichia coli isolated from Belgian poultry meat preparations, the latter dominated in the Bolton enrichment broth and crowded the mCCDA plates. This resulted in the inability to recover C. jejuni by ISO 10272-1:2006 standard method. Preston broth did not support the growth of the ESBL E. coli isolates, but showed longer detection time of C. jejuni compared to Bolton broth. The use of the same antibiotic (sodium cefoperazone) in Bolton broth and in mCCDA plates may explain the problems encountered for detection of C. jejuni, as high numbers of ESBL E. coli present after enrichment in Bolton broth, also caused overgrowth and masked the few C. jejuni colonies present on the mCCDA plates. The use of Campylobacter spp. specific real-time PCR circumvented these problems and enabled rapid detection of the pathogen after 24 h enrichment in both Bolton and Preston broth, for both healthy and freeze stressed cells.     

Addition of Rifampicin to Bolton Broth to Inhibit Extended‐Spectrum β‐Lactamase‐Producing Escherichia coli for the Detection of Campylobacter

Exponential growth of extended‐spectrum β‐lactamase (ESBL)‐producing Escherichia coli in Campylobacter media has become a common problem for the detection of Campylobacter in chicken meats. We investigated the minimum inhibitory concentration of 40 ESBL‐producing E. coli isolates from meats obtained from various countries against antibacterial agents in Bolton broth (cefoperazone, vancomycin, and trimethoprim). All ESBL‐producing E. coli strains were resistant to cefoperazone and vancomycin, whereas 50% of them were resistant to trimethoprim and grew in Bolton broth. We found that 20 μg/mL of rifampicin inhibited the growth of trimethoprim‐resistant E. coli strains. Hence, we added 20 μg/mL of rifampicin to Bolton broth to improve the isolation of Campylobacter from chicken carcass rinses. The isolation rate of Campylobacter was significantly higher in the modified broth (44 out of 58, 75.9%, P < 0.05) than in the normal broth (0 out of 58, 0%). Furthermore, the number of agar plates with non‐Campylobacter spp. was much lower after enrichment in the modified broth (4 out of 58, 6.9%, P < 0.05) than in the normal broth (58 out of 58, 100%).