15th International Workshop on Campylobacter, Helicobacter and Related Organisms.

The purpose of this communication is to update the veterinary public health community as to what poultry-related interventions were presented at the recent biennial International Workshop on Campylobacter, Helicobacter and Related Organisms (CHRO), which was held in Niigata, Japan, September 2-5, 2009. More than 30 years have passed since the publication of Martin Skirrow's seminal paper in the British Medical Journal in which he described Campylobacter enteritis as a new disease (1). This publication precipitated a global interest in thermophilic campylobacters. Three decades later, these organisms still pose a grave threat to public health. Furthermore, 10 years have passed since Parkhill et al. published the genome sequence of Campylobacter jejuni NCTC11168 (2).