Reducing Egg Susceptibility to Contaminations in Avian Production in Europe (RESCAPE)

In the context of the move from traditional cages The European project RESCAPE was designed to reduce food safety risks by:
• Optimising hen and egg collection management by participating to the record in France of quantitative data on contamination of eggs to minimise the risk factors in alternative systems.
• Reinforcing the natural anti-microbial and mechanical defence mechanisms of eggs by identifying genes coding proteins involved in egg protection and selecting hens with superior anti-microbial alleles.
• Exploring phenotypic variability in egg protection against Salmonella penetration related to environmental factors during egg storage
• Improving the technology for egg grading using non-invasive methods to enhance the detection of eggs with the greatest risk to the consumer.
• Developing innovative egg decontamination treatments using microwave, hot air and gas plasma sterilization, modified atmosphere packaging or chitosan treatment of eggs.
• Reducing veterinary drug residues in the egg by developing vaccine technology for red mite.