The story of camylobacter.

1. 1
Authors: Cheyenne Te Haara-Barr,
Martina Steffert Cubillana.
Illustrator: Sarah Newton.

3. “Good morning class.”
“Good morning Miss Jones.”
Miss Jones bounced towards the old ragged chalk board,
she wrote a very long word on the board.
“Well, “ Miss Jones said, “Campylobacter is a form of food
poisoning you get from meats mainly chicken and sausages.
Campy is its short name. It is naturally found in animals
stomachs. When you haven’t prepared your meat properly
campy bacteria multiplies in your stomach.
Cross contamination is where germs from a knife or kitchen
object have been spread to another kitchen item like a
chopping board”
Miss? what is
camp…ylo…
bac…ter?

4. “What then happens is the campylobacter gets eaten from
the cross contamination, and it starts to affect the diges-
tive system within 2 to 5 days. You may experience things
like vomiting, diarrhoea, fevers, headaches etc.”
“Ill show you a real life example. Lets go on a journey class.
Heeey Bernie!”
Miss I still
don’t get it.

5. “This, dear, is Bernie the Magic Robot. He is going to take
us on a journey he’s going to a show us a real diagram. Come
on kids let Bernie do the magic!”
“Welcome to Joe’s Chicken Factory!”
“I’m here to show you about campylobacter! Come on kids
lets go inside!” said Bernie.
Wow! Miss,
what is it?
Wow that’s
fantastic!
Miss where
are we?
What are we
doing here?

6. “This is where Joe reduces campylobacter in the chicken.
What happens is Joe puts loads of dead chickens into a
huge bath of water and chlorine for two hours, then Joe
lets them drip for a while. Next Joe gets his workers to
then put them in another big bath which is full of this acid-
ic, vinegar like fluid. This reduces the campylobacter dis-
ease by about 75%. Then its gutted, packaged and sent to
the supermarket.”
“That brings us to the other part of today. Bernie
take it away!”
But we don’t understand
what happens in their
stomachs though.

7. “To be exact we are in a chicken’s stomach.”
“So that you understand the living condition and process
that campylobacter goes through in its life span.”
“That was a campylobacter cell. It looks a bit like a seagull
don’t you reckon? To a human it is impossible to see them
unless you put it on a agar plate and look at them through a
microscope.”
We are in a
stomach.
But why
miss?
Miss what’s that
white blob that
just passed us?

8. “Well you see this a human’s stomach and look this person
has campylobacter in them. Look at the white seagull cell
pass by ! What slowly happens is the campylobacter multi-
plies by one generation per hour. The body doesn’t recog-
nise the bacteria cells so it fights it in order to get rid of
the unknown species. This is what causes you to vomit,
have headaches and diarrhoea.”
We’re in another
stomach?! This is
gross!”

9. Why are we back at
Joe’s factory?
Thanks Rachel!
“We’re here to talk to Rachel the scientist
about campylobacter and how to reduce the
spread of Bacteria at home.”
“That’s the biggest problem, ” said Rachel,
“We’re still researching ways to reduce campylo-
bacter levels. We are testing all the time but
taking care preparing chicken at home is the
most important way to reduce campylobacter in-
fection.”
“Okay well kids we better get back to school
and study hard. Who knows? We might even find
a solution to the scientists little hiccups.”
“Well that would be great if you guys could.
Here, have a sample of the vinegar like solution we use as a
memento of your visit.”

10. “Okay kids we’re back at school. Let’s get cracking. We now
know heaps about campy so let’s see if we as a class can
come up with a way to help reduce campy even further at
home.”
1 day later…

11. Miss we still
haven’t come up
with anything.
IV’E GOT IT! Why don’t we use
the acid sample Rachel gave us
and turn it into a type of kitch-
en cleaner for campylobacter
bacteria at home?
It will also reduce it be-
cause that’s how Joe’s
chicken factory does it!
And you could use it on
the knives, chopping
boards and kitchen
benches so you don’t
cross contaminate too!
We could put it in a
bottle and call it…
CAMPY KILLER!
Good work kids! Great job after
all that work you did it! Sure!
First let’s show the scientists!
Bernie take us there once more
please.

12. “Good job, kids! What a great idea. Well then let’s start
making more of this stuff and start creating the CAMPY
KILLER!” cried Rachel.
Good job.
Hey Rachel look
what we did!
We made a campy reduc-
er using the sample you
gave us so people can use
it as a kitchen cleaner on
YAY, HOORAY, benches and everything!
YIPEE, HOORAY, YAY!

13. Food safety with chicken:
Cleaning:
Wash and dry knives and chopping boards thoroughly in hot
soapy water.
Make sure dish clothes are rinsed often in hot soapy water.
Wash hands properly with soap and warm water, use the 20/20
rule (20 seconds wash, 20 seconds dry).
Make sure that plates and utensils for raw and cooked chicken
are kept apart. E.g. don’t put cooked chicken on a dish that raw
chicken was on.
Cook:
Keep chicken hot.
Cook chicken well until juices run clear NOT pink.
Cover:
Cover all foods before storing.
Keep raw chicken away from ready-to-eat products, fruit and
veges.
Store raw meats at the bottom of the fridge so that the juices
don’t drip onto other foods.
Cook and refrigerate chicken leftovers immediately after they
have finished steaming.
Chill:
Poultry should be frozen at or less than minus 18°c.
Defrost chicken thoroughly before cooking, preferably in a
Microwave or fridge. Not a kitchen bench.