The Effect of Standard Pelleting and More Thermally Aggressive Pelleting Utilizing a Hygieniser on Feed Manufacture and Reduction of Enterococcus faecium, a Salmonella Surrogate

Feed hygienics are of ever increasing importance in providing safe feed to animals, and ultimately safe food for consumers. Salmonella has been identified as a major microbial hazard in animal feed that has been linked to illness in both animals and humans. Use of antibiotics has decreased in recent years due to policies and practices of poultry production, increasing opportunities for potential pathogens in feed to affect poultry and poultry products. New feed equipment technology provides an option to combat feed pathogens. For example, hygienisers have been suggested to decrease Salmonella associated with mash feeds due to the ability to maintain conditioned feed temperature for an extended time. Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) is a non-pathogenic surrogate used to study reduction of Salmonella. The objective of the current study was to compare feed manufacture and Salmonella surrogate (E. faecium ATCC 8459) reduction differences between standard pelleting and more thermally aggressive pelleting utilizing a hygieniser. More thermally aggressive pelleting decreased pellet mill motor load (P = 0.02), increased hot pellet temperature (P = 0.02), and tended to increase pellet durability (P = 0.07). E. faecium ATCC 8459 colonies decreased with standard pelleting relative to inoculated mash and were reduced further with more thermally aggressive pelleting (P<0.05). Standard pelleting and more thermally aggressive pelleting resulted in a 3 and 4-log reduction in E. faecium ATCC 8459, respectively, relative to inoculated mash. More thermally aggressive pelleting utilizing a hygieniser may improve manufacture efficiency, pellet quality, and Salmonella reduction.