Campylobacter jejuni is a pathogen of great concern to the poultry industry as the consumption of undercooked poultry and poultry meat products is the leading source of human infection. Recent legislation and shifting public opinion on antibiotic growth promoter usage in food animal agriculture has removed the historical means of controlling C. jejuni and the poultry industry is exploring new means of foodborne pathogen control. In this thesis, we established a C. jejuni animal challenge model to effectively colonize broiler ceca, alter tight junction protein expression, and elicit strong immune responses. Successful, enduring cecal colonization and immunomodulation with challenge of 1 X 108 CFU/bird C. jejuni at 21 days was established. This challenge model to evaluate the efficacy of a synbiotic supplement as an antibiotic growth promoter alternative and identified it decreases C. jejuni loads in broilers and beneficially modulate the immune response to challenge, compared to antibiotic supplementation.
