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Research led by Professor Sam Sheppard, Fellow of St Anne’s College and Professor of Microbial Genomics and Evolution at the University of Oxford, has revealed that the rapid global expansion of industrial poultry farming is accelerating the spread and evolution of Campylobacter – the world’s leading bacterial cause of diarrhoeal disease.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study analysed nearly 2,800 bacterial genomes collected from chickens and wild birds across 30 countries over more than four decades. The research found that industrial poultry production has increased the movement of Campylobacter strains between wild birds and commercial chickens by more than 100-fold, creating ideal conditions for the bacteria to evolve and acquire traits such as antimicrobial resistance.
Professor Sheppard, senior author of the study, said:
“Industrial farming has created one of the largest animal habitats on the planet. Our findings provide new evidence that human-driven environmental change can increase the spread of infectious diseases. As chicken populations have grown, bacteria that were once largely confined to wild birds have gained far more opportunities to enter poultry flocks, spread and become established.”
The researchers found that the dramatic growth in global chicken production since the 1960s has fundamentally altered the ecology of the pathogen. Mathematical modelling suggests that today’s vast poultry populations act as ecological “pathogen sponges”, enabling bacterial strains from multiple sources to mix, spread and persist. Genomic analysis also identified genetic adaptations that help Campylobacter survive in intensive poultry environments, including genes linked to antimicrobial resistance.
The findings have important implications for both food safety and public health. Campylobacter is responsible for more cases of bacterial gastroenteritis than any other pathogen worldwide, with poultry recognised as the primary source of human infection. As antibiotic resistance continues to rise, preventing the evolution and spread of these strains is becoming increasingly important.
The study highlights how large-scale changes to agricultural systems can reshape the evolution of infectious diseases, underlining the importance of integrating genomic surveillance with farming and public health policy to reduce future risks.