Exeley Inc.

KOMAR, Beata

1. INTRODUCTION
„I am afraid of going out”
“I cannot see the bus numbers but I am ashamed to ask
strangers”
“I fell down the stairs because I did not see the first step”
“I cut my head because I did not notice a glass wall”
“I have trouble crossing the street”
“I get lost in hypermarkets, offices, at the bus/train sta-
tions”
These authentic statements begin the publication of
Polish Association of the Blind which deals with plan-
ning public spaces for the benefit of visually impaired
people [1].
80% of sensation which reaches us is detected by
means of the sense of sight. Sight can be regarded as
the most important of human senses, thanks to which
we can orient in space, perform everyday activities,
meet other people, work, live. What happens, howev-
er, when this sense is lost? The chairman of the
Chance for the Blind Foundation, Marek Kalbarczyk,
who lost his sight as a teenager, writes in his book enti-
tled: Attain a goal. Can a blind person become the
president? [2], that at the beginning he lacked his sight
mostly when falling asleep, because still as a sighted
person he had not been able to fall asleep in complete
darkness. In spite of strenuous effort, a healthy per-
son can hardly imagine the existence without the sense
of sight. That is why it is so difficult to understand the
world of the blind and to design for them. Fortunately,
more and more projects, publications and social initia-
tives appear aimed at introducing this issue. An exam-
ple of that kind of undertakings is for instance,
Invisible Exhibition, which can be visited in Warszawa.
…“The intention of Invisible Exhibition is to bring clos-
er the experience perspective of one world, of the sight-
ed people and the one of the blind. Assigned to the care
of blind Guides you can visit specially equipped and
entirely darkened rooms. You can experience how to
move in the hustle and bustle of the city life, how to pay
for coffee in a bar, how to move around in a flat in com-
plete darkness and not only”… [3]
The purpose of this paper is to introduce issues con-
cerning orientation of visually impaired people in pub-
lic space and designing in favour of its improvement.
The paper was written on the basis of literature analy-
ses and the author’s own observation.
ON ORIENTATION OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE IN PUBLIC SPACE
Beata KOMAR *
*DSc Dr. Eng. Arch.; Faculty of Architecture, The Silesian University of Technology, ul. Akademicka 7,
44-100 Gliwice, Poland
E-mail address: beata.komar@polsl.pl
Received: 21.06.2018; Revised: 25.05.2018; Accepted: 23.08.2018
A b s t r a c t
The topic of this paper focuses on orientation of visually impaired people in public space.
The purpose of the paper is to show the ways visually impaired people move and therefore, to show the barriers which hin-
der them to get someplace. An important element is to increase social awareness of the quality of public spaces so that they
could be adapted to every user. The paper was written on the basis of literature analyses and the author’s own observation.
K e y w o r d s : Blind and visually impaired people; Orientation in public space.
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A R C H I T E C T U R E C I V I L E N G I N E E R I N G E N V I R O N M E N T
The Si les ian Univers i ty of Technology No. 3/2018
d o i : 1 0 . 2 1 3 0 7 / A C E E - 2 0 1 8 - 0 3 5
B . K o m a r
2. MOBILITY IN SPACE OF VISUALLY
IMPAIRED PEOPLE
In the urban space the visually impaired people can
move in the following way:
• with a qualified guide,
• with a trained guide dog (adults);
• with a white cane,
• with a locator (technology is under development)
A white cane is the most helpful element for a visual-
ly impaired person, and the most characteristic one,
thanks to which we can recognise a blind person.
James Biggs, a photographer from London, is regard-
ed as an inventor of a white cane. In 1921 as the first
one he started using a cane in a natural wooden
colour and when it caused him more trouble than
help he started using a cane painted white because of
poor visibility of the first one in the city crowd.
However, a white cane came into widespread use
after 10 years, when in February 1931 the idea was
popularised by an aristocrat Guilly d’Herbemont,
who initiated a national programme of a white cane
movement for the blind people in France. Moreover,
as a result of action taken by BBC and Royal
National Institute of Blind People all blind persons in
Britain have been provided with a white stick for free
since 1932. In Poland white canes can be purchased
partially funded by the National Health Fund [4].
Numerous studies carried out in the United States
showed that long non-folding canes are the best to
learn spatial orientation and move independently
because they better convey information from the
ground.
We can distinguish the following techniques of walk-
ing with a white stick:
• Touch technique 
touch technique constitutes about 80–90% of the
time of walking with a cane; in this technique it is
essential to touch two points on the ground with the
cane tip while moving the stick from the one side of
body to the other side. 
• Constant-contact technique 
the stick is moved on the surface without taking it
away from the ground, from the right side of the body
and vice versa. 
• Diagonal technique 
it consists in statically keeping a cane in front of one-
self; a stem of the cane is placed diagonally and the
tip is 2–3 cm above the ground; such handling of a
walking cane acts as a bumper when in contact with
an obstacle [5].    
A visually impaired person must do a lot of exercises
in order to achieve perfection in walking with a cane
and to have no fear of going out into public space.
Such a person will move in space on the basis of
memorising its characteristic elements and remem-
bering the time he/she needed to cover consecutive
stretches of road. In line with technological develop-
ment white sticks are equipped with devices which
assist in orientation. In Poland pursuant to Highway
Code: Art. 42. When moving about the city a blind per-
son is obliged to carry a white walking cane in a man-
ner visible to others [6].   
3. OBSTACLES IN PUBLIC SPACE
In this context it is very important to remove any
obstacles from the public space. It is not only con-
nected with typically natural obstacles, although the
removal of which should be given priority considering
the improvement of conditions for all users, but, for
example, dismantling of advertisements standing on
pavements, which can simply be not noticed by a visu-
ally impaired person. It is necessary to remove from
public space all such elements which can endanger
safety of users.  
28 A R C H I T E C T U R E   C I V I L  E N G I N E E R I N G   E N V I R O N M E N T 3/2018
Figure 1.
Blind woman using her white walking stick. Source: good-
luz/shutterstock.com
Figure 2.
Advertisements in urban space. Source: Wyborcza.pl
O N  O R I E N T A T I O N  O F  V I S U A L L Y  I M P A I R E D  P E O P L E  I N  P U B L I C  S P A C E
The author has worked out a special method – with-
in a Urban Audit – of studies on structural and non-
structural barriers in the space of a housing develop-
ment, which can be useful in other urban areas as
well. Within the framework of this method places
which can potentially constitute barriers are evaluat-
ed based on criteria proposed by the author. Then
suitable recommendations on modernization are
assigned to them [7, 8].
Apart from problematic places mentioned in the
method some others can also be indicated – the
milder – obstacles in public space. The following
examples can be numbered among them:  
• Change of the pavement level or other surface – the
most problematic is a small, unexpected change of
the level, e.g. by one step, which can be dangerous
for a healthy person and a visually impaired one, as
well; 
• if in public space there are (for example: a shop-
ping centre, train station, office block) large door-
mats at the entrance – which, can expose users to
the danger of stumbling when they are not proper-
ly recessed;  
• interruption of a guiding line for blind people at
the entrance to public utility buildings – such a
phenomenon can cause a blind person to lose the
sense of direction and evoke a feeling of being lost,   
• insufficiently profiled stairs – stairs should be so
profiled as to prevent from getting caught with the
back of a shoe when going downstairs and stum-
bling when going upstairs [9],  
• application of very shiny surfaces [9] – which can
dazzle a visually impaired person,  
• lack of colour contrast inside public utility build-
ings [9] – which make it difficult to distinguish
between a wall, floor and ceiling. 
• visual information without strong colour contrast
– they can be indecipherable for a visually impaired
person. 
Such types of doormats are normally used seasonally,
therefore they are an element which is laid in the
entrance areas only during the autumn and winter sea-
son. But on the basis of the presented examples it is
possible to propose the application of recessed (deep)
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Figure 3.
Example of a change of the pavement level by one step 
Source: Photo taken by the author
Figure 4.
Large doormat in the inner entrance areato a shopping cen-
tre. Source: Photo taken by the author
Figure 5.
An example of a large recessed doormat in the outer entrance
area to a shopping centre. Source: Photo taken by the author
Figure 6.
Guiding lines interrupted by a large doormat and a sliding
door, railway station Gliwice. Source: Photo taken by the
author
B .  K o m a r
doormats in the inner entrance areas. Then they
should be designed comprehensively together with a
building or the building ought to be so modernised as
to apply a safe doormat. In such a case it is necessary
to provide proper uninterrupted guiding lines.  
The railway station in Gliwice was put into operation
after thorough modernisation in December 2016. It
seems, however, that actions taken in favour of visu-
ally impaired people should have been better thought
over.  
4. SOLUTIONS WHICH SUPPORT THE
ORIENTATION OF VISUALLY
IMPAIRED PEOPLE IN PUBLIC SPACE
When introducing various types of elements into
public space, the purpose of which is to facilitate the
orientation of visually impaired people,first of all you
need to think about the way such improvement can
serve such a person and how such a person can famil-
iarize with it. A blind person, devoid of the sense of
sight, can use the sense of hearing and touch.
Therefore, we can support the orientation of such a
person by means of verbal and haptic means. 
Verbal means include, for example, application of
sound in correlation with light signals on pedestrian
crossings, or information spoken in lifts. Application
of verbal information in the hubbub of the street,
where many sound sources overlap or if there are
many crossroads in the vicinity, is very difficult and
requires specialist knowledge. First of all, recommen-
dations of the Polish Association of the Blind can be
helpful here [1]. Thus, these types of actions are sup-
ported or substituted by haptic information, which
include: 
• tactile surfaces on pedestrian crossings, 
• tactile strips on railway platforms and bus stops
supported with additional contrasting colour (yel-
low or orange, where yellow is the last colour seen
by a human eye which loses sight), 
• guide paths and tactile paving surfaces, 
• typhlographic maps situated most of all at the
entrances to public utility buildings, which inform
about the layout of particular storeys of a building
(maps should be used on each floor of a building), 
• Braille signs on handrails and doors (such signs
need to be used in the same place, just above a door
handle on the door or on the wall)
• scale models,
and
• application of high colour contrast for visual infor-
mation. 
Solutions in typhlographics, that is printing technolo-
gy, which enable to produce a convex graphic form
become more and more popular in new or mod-
ernised public utility buildings. Social awareness con-
cerning this issue grows as well. 
30 A R C H I T E C T U R E   C I V I L  E N G I N E E R I N G   E N V I R O N M E N T 3/2018
Figure 9.
Signs on doors, covers on handrails in the Regional Social
Welfare Centre in Poznań. Source: Altix
Figure 7.
Guiding lines, tactile paving surfaces. Source: Photo taken
by the author
Figure 8.
Typhlographic map on the railway station in Katowice.
Source: Altix
O N  O R I E N T A T I O N  O F  V I S U A L L Y  I M P A I R E D  P E O P L E  I N  P U B L I C  S P A C E
Here it is also worthwhile to give an example of appli-
cation of typhlographic solutions to introduce art to
blind people. Such types of conveniences were intro-
duced by the Silesian Museum in Katowice, which
offers visually impaired people an educational path in
the Gallery of Polish Painting equipped with reliefs
that copy the selected pictures as well as guides pre-
pared in Braille alphabet. So far, this path has been
the only solution of this type in Poland.  
The other type of solutions are urban development or
architectural scale models, which can be found main-
ly in historic cities or at historic buildings. The scale
models are also provided with descriptions in Braille
alphabet. When preparing a scale model, it is neces-
sary most of all to design it in such a way that a blind
person will have easy access to it and that the pre-
sented model will really convey proportions, style and
layout of the building it represents. A big mistake it
to place a model on convex elements, deform it,
because it disturbs the perception of the message.  
Preparing a scale model, it needs to be remembered
what Agnieszka Kłopotowska said in her paper [10],
that the sense of touch is a successive sense which
relies on discovering separate layers of the studied
object: its three-dimensional geometry, overall
dimensions and particular elements of the composi-
tion, spatial interrelations and certain surface prop-
erties. Therefore, for completeness of the message, it
is worthwhile to prepare a multistage model, that is a
set of models of a building corresponding to various
scales of accuracy – from the most schematic one
illustrating the main formal guideline (proportions of
parts and directions of composition), through the
general view on the shape of the building to the archi-
tectural detail. 
5. CONCLUSION
The examples of solutions for visually impaired peo-
ple, which were presented in the paper, do not
exhaust the topic.They show, however, the need for
taking such actions in public space. In order to avoid
design errors, it is necessary to propose closer inter-
disciplinary cooperation of designers with blind peo-
ple, who can define their needs in the best way.  
REFERENCES
[1] Planning and adaptation of public space for blind and
visually impaired people. Recommendations and reg-
ulations, joint publication, (2016). Polish Association
of the Blind, Warszawa. 
[2] Kalbarczyk M., Jurczyńska M., (2008).  Achieve a
goal. Can a blind person become the president?
Foundation Union of Aid To The Disabled People
Chance, Warszawa. 
[3] https://niewidzialna.pl/
[4] http://pzn.org.pl/biale-laski-z-dofinansowaniem-
-nfz-2/
[5] Wiese W., (2015). White walking cane – symbol of
blindness. History, construction and meaning. What
next. 
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Figure 10.
Scale model of the Żupny Castle in Wieliczka. Photo:
Internet
Figure 11.
Example of an urban development scale model. Photo:
Internet
Figure 12.
Scale model of Wieluń, an example of distortion of the city
view. Photo. Internet
a
B .  K o m a r
[6] Highway Code – Traffic Law Act, (1997). Law
Journal, 98(602). 
[7] Komar B., (2014). Contemporary quality of coopera-
tive housing estates in the light of rules of sustainable
development in selected examples, Publishing House
of the Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice,
220–228.
[8] Komar B., (2016). Universal Design. Method of qual-
ity researches of residential space, Architecture Civil
Engineering Environment 9(4), 13–19.
[9] Kowalski K., Planning without barriers, Integration,
PDF. 
[10] Kłopotowska A., (2009). Architecture in communica-
tion beyond eye contact. Shaping the   conscious per-
ception, Technical Magazin R., 106, 331–334. 
[11] Wysocki M., (2010). Designing the surroundings for
the blind. The perception of space outside of sight.
Publishing House of the Gdańsk University of
Technology, Gdańsk.
[12] Wysocki M., Załuski D., (2016). Expertise in the
accessibility of railway service facilities for travelers
with disabilities and limited mobility, UTK. 
32 A R C H I T E C T U R E   C I V I L  E N G I N E E R I N G   E N V I R O N M E N T 3/2018


ON ORIENTATION OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE IN PUBLIC SPACE

LEMPART, Anna

KUDLEK, Edyta

DUDZIAK, Mariusz

ZAWADZKA, Aleksandra

THE SOURCE OF TOXICITY OF BACKWASH WATER FROM A SWIMMING POOL FILTER BED WASHINGS

Figas, Agnieszka

Wieczorek, Magdalena

Żuk-Wasek, Anna

Litwińska, Bogumiła

Isolation of Sabin-like Polioviruses from Sewage in Poland

Szosland-Fałtyn, Anna

Bartodziejska, Beata

Królasik, Joanna

Paziak-Domańska, Beata

Korsak, Dorota

Chmiela, Magdalena

Polish Journal of Microbiology
2018,  Vol. 67,  No 1,  117–120
SHORT COMMUNICATION
* Corresponding author: A. Szosland-Fałtyn, Institute of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology, Department of Food Quality, Lodz, 
Poland; e-mail: anna.szosland@ibprs.pl
During the last few decades, the global production 
of poultry meat has increased rapidly from 58.5 million 
tonnes in 2000 to 95.5 million tonnes in 2014. Produc-
tion is not equally distributed; the Americas accounted 
for 43% of the total production, Asia (mainly China) 
for 34%, Europe for 17% and Africa and Oceania for 
5% and 1% of the whole production in 2012 (93 million 
tonnes), respectively. In 2023, poultry meat is expected 
to be the largest meat sector by around 130.7 million 
tonnes (Skarp et al., 2016). Chicken meat is currently 
the first most widely produced poultry meat followed 
by turkey meat, duck meat and goose meat. Although 
much attention has focused on microbiological safety 
of poultry meat, this type of product remains a signi-
ficant cause of foodborne disease in the world. The 
most reported poultry-borne gastroenteritic disease 
is campylobacteriosis. In 2015 there were 229,213 
cases of campylobacteriosis diagnosed (EFSA, 2016). 
Infection in humans is mainly caused by the zoonotic 
pathogen Campylobacter spp. Poultry is a natural host 
for Campylobacter spp. in general, and that colonized 
birds are the primary vector for transmitting this patho-
gen to humans (Bless et al., 2014; Rożynek et al., 2009). 
Although poultry meat is becoming increasingly 
popular, relatively little research has been done inves-
tigating the presence and count of Campylobacter 
spp. in other than chicken types of poultry meat. In 
order to add more insight to these issue the objective 
of this study was to determine the prevalence, count 
and genetic diversity of Campylobacter spp. in different 
kind of poultry meat available in local trade network.
One hundred and eighty one samples of four types 
of commercially available fresh poultry meat were 
microbiologically analysed from 2013 to 2015. The 
samples of meat were transported to the Laboratory 
of Microbiology in isothermal containers, maintaining 
the temperature at 0–2°C, and tested immediately on 
reaching the laboratory. A total of 70 chicken, 47 turkey, 
54 duck and 10 goose meat portions were examined 
in terms of the prevalence and count of Campylobac-
ter spp. isolation and count were performed according 
to PN-ISO 10272-1:2007+Ap1:2008 and PKN ISO/
TS 10272-2:2008. To confirm isolates and identify the 
species, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods 
was applied (Maćkiw et al., 2012). For quality control, 
C. jejuni ATCC 33291 and C. coli ATCC 33559 strains 
were used. Prevalence data for Campylobacter spp. 
sorted by meat type, and species were analyzed using 
the analysis of variance test ANOVA (Statistica 6.0 PL). 
The significance level was P < 0.05. In case of finding 
The Prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in Polish Poultry Meat
ANNA SZOSLAND-FAŁTYN1*, BEATA BARTODZIEJSKA1, JOANNA KRÓLASIK1, BEATA PAZIAK-DOMAŃSKA1,
DOROTA KORSAK2 and MAGDALENA CHMIELA3
1 Institute of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology, Department of Food Quality, Lodz, Poland
2 Department of Food Safety, National Food and Nutrition Institute, Warsaw, Poland
3 Division of Gastroimmunology, Department of Immunology and Infectious Biology,
Institute of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Immunology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection,
University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland
Submitted 09 February 2017, revised and accepted 17 May 2017
A b s t r a c t
The prevalence, count and molecular identification of Campylobacter spp. in Polish poultry meat were analysed. 181 samples of meat from 
chicken (70), turkey (47), duck (54) and goose (10) were studied. Campylobacter spp. was found in 64% of meat samples. The highest 
prevalence of this pathogen was detected for duck meat. On average 80% of duck samples were contaminated with Campylobacter spp. The 
counts of Campylobacter spp. in positive samples remained under ten colony forming units per gram of product in 59% of poultry meat. 
C. jejuni was more frequently detected in poultry meat than C. coli.
K e y  w o r d s: Campylobacter spp., microbiological quality, poultry meat
Szosland-Fałtyn A. et al. 1118
significant differences the post-hoc analysis was done 
using the Tukey test.
The frequency of Campylobacter spp. detection and 
counts in the tested poultry meat is shown in Table I. 
Examination of the meats revealed that the vast major-
ity of samples (64%) were contaminated with Cam- 
pylobacter spp. The prevalence of this genus ranged 
from 38% to 80%, respectively for turkey and duck. 
The direct plating method yielded enumeration results 
from < 10 CFU/g to 1.0 × 103 CFU/g. Enumeration data 
showed the greater number of samples were positive 
only after enrichment (68%) indicating low micro- 
biological load of Campylobacter on analysed poultry 
meat (Table I). 
Of the 116 positive samples, isolates originating 
from a variety of poultry meat were lost in the course 
of freeze storage, leaving isolates from 97 samples for 
inclusion in the PCR analysis. Of the 97 Campylobacter 
spp. isolates, 61 and 36 were confirmed based on PCR 
as C. jejuni and C. coli, respectively (Table  II). Varia-
bility in C. jejuni and C. coli prevalence observed in 
samples obtained from different types of poultry meat 
was not statistically significant. 
Due to the lack of regulation in the EU legislation 
routine tests of poultry meat for the presence of Campy-
lobacter spp. are not carried out in Poland (Commission 
Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 as amended). Therefore, 
the above quantitative and qualitative assessment results 
of Campylobacter spp. prevalence in different types of 
poultry meat, available in Polish trade are a valuable 
source of information on this pathogen contamination. 
In this study Campylobacter spp. was isolated from 
64% of poultry meat. Within the tested meat types, 
highest Campylobacter spp. prevalence was found in 
duck (80%) followed by chicken (70%), goose (60%), 
and turkey (38%). Similar results were obtained by 
Korsak et al. (2015). Polish studies at the retail level 
revealed that 49.3% of poultry samples were contami-
nated with Campylobacter spp. Our results on the prev-
alence of Campylobacter spp. in raw poultry meat are 
in agreement with data from other countries (Adzitey 
et al., 2012; Guyard-Nicodeme et al., 2015; Hansson 
et al., 2015). During the seven years of the study in the 
United States the average prevalence of Campylobac-
ter spp. in retail broiler meat was 41%, with no sta-
tistical differences in the prevalence by year (P > 0.05) 
(Williams and Oyarzabal, 2012). In this study the 
prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in chicken meat was 
70% and was lower than the frequency of contamina-
tion detected in research performed on chicken in Ger-
many or Ireland, respectively, 87% and 91%. (Luber and 
Bartelt, 2007; Madden et al., 2011; Moran et al., 2009). 
The percentage obtained in our experiment for duck 
samples positive for this pathogen is similar to findings 
reported from Great Britain (Colles et al., 2011), Tan-
zania (Nonga and Muhairwa, 2010) and South Korea 
(Wei et al., 2014). According to Colles et al. (2011) 
and Wei et al. (2014) the percentage of contaminated 
duck samples was 93.3–100.0% and 96.6% respectively. 
Lower values were found by Jamali et al. (2015) and 
Rahimi et al. (2011). These authors detected Campylo-
bacter spp. in 39.2% and 35.5% duck samples, respec-
chicken 70 49/70 36/31 13/11 23 10 16
turkey 47 18/38 12/10  6/5 12 6 0
duck 54 43/80 27/23 16/14 28 5 10
goose 10 6/60 4/3  2/2 5 1 0
total 181 116/64 79/68 37/32 68 22 26
Table I
Campylobacter spp. presence and counts in different types of poultry meat.
No of
samples
No / %
of positive
samples
No / %
of identified strains
No of positive samples Counts
[CFU/g]Meat
type C. jejuni C. coli < 10 ≤ 100 > 100
chicken 37 25/68 12/32
turkey 14 8/57 6/43
duck 40 24/60 16/40
goose 6 4/67 2/33
total 97 61/63 36/37
Table II
Genotypic identification of Campylobacter spp.
Meat
type
No of contaminated
samples
No / % of strains identified to species
C. jejuni C. coli
Short communication1 119
tively. The differences among results might be due to 
diverse isolation methods, geographic, and seasonal 
factors (Adzitey et al., 2012; Jamali et al., 2015). With 
regard to the range of Campylobacter sp. – positive 
samples in turkey meat, the results of Atanassova et al. 
(2007) and Rahimi and Tajbakhsh (2008) are similar to 
the results obtained in this investigation. Of the turkey 
meat examined, 34.0% and 24.7% samples were Campy-
lobacter sp. positive (Atanassova et al., 2007; Rahimi 
and Tajbakhsh, 2008). Other authors have described 
higher levels. Cakmak and Erol (2012) detected Campy-
lobacter spp. from 45.6% of the turkey meat samples. 
On the other hand Noormohamed and Fakhr (2014) 
found in their study that 17% of the turkey samples 
were positive for Campylobacter spp. There are very few 
data about prevalence of microbial contamination on 
goose meat. The first study has shown the occurrence 
of Campylobacter spp. in 26.5% goose samples (Rahimi 
et al., 2011). In later research reported by Jamali et al. 
(2015) prevalence was 26.1%.
Our findings showed that C. jejuni was more preva-
lent than C. coli in poultry meat that is in agreement with 
data from other countries (Ghafir et al., 2007; Jamali 
et al., 2015; Noormohamed and Fakhr, 2014; Rahimi 
et al., 2011; Wei et al., 2014; Williams and Oyarzabal, 
2012). The higher prevalence of C. jejuni in poultry 
meat is contrary to the findings conducted by research-
ers from India, Reunion Island and Poland. Malik et al. 
(2014) observed a shift in the prevalence of important 
species of Campylobacter spp. C. coli were prevalent in 
93.75% (30/32) and C. jejuni in 6.25% (2/32) among 
broilers slaughtered at chicken shop. Henry et al. (2011) 
also detected C. coli as a predominant species in chicken 
flocks. Maćkiw et al. (2012) reported that C. coli was the 
most ubiquitous. Its presence was determined in 75.5% 
samples of chicken meat and giblets, whereas C. jejuni 
was found in 24.5% of samples.
The quantitative results from present study showed 
low Campylobacter spp. contamination level of exam-
ined poultry meat. Campylobacter spp. counts were 
< 10 CFU/g in 68% of positive cases. 22% and 26% 
samples showed a pathogen concentration with a range 
of ≥ 10 to < 100 CFU/g and with ≥ 100 CFU/g, respec-
tively. Our findings are similar to data from the Bel-
gian monitoring program where 58% of the samples 
were contaminated with < 10 CFU/g, 29% of the 
samples were contaminated with a range of ≥ 10 to 
< 100 CFU/g and 11% of the samples were contami-
nated with ≥ 100 CFU/g. The average Campylobacter 
spp. concentration was 4.8 × 101 CFU/g (Habib et al., 
2008). The higher Campylobacter spp. load were found 
on Estonian broiler chicken products. Enumeration 
data, conducted by Mäesaar et al. (2014) showed that 
the overall arithmetic Campylobacter spp. CFU mean 
was 1.6 × 103 CFU/g of product. Relatively low counts 
obtained in our study and in research conducted by 
Habib et al. (2008) might also be considered hazard-
ous. In a restaurant-associated outbreak, the number 
of C. jejuni bacteria in the causative chicken meal was 
estimated to range from 53 to 750 CFU/g. Additionally, 
in vitro models indicate that the efficiency with which 
some Campylobacter strains invade intestinal cell lines 
is optimal at the lowest range of multiplicities of infec-
tion, which suggests that species is a highly efficient 
solitary invader (Habib et al., 2008). Our study revealed 
that fresh poultry meat is often contaminated with 
Campylobacter spp. that decreases the quality of this 
kind of meat and constitutes a public health hazards.
Acknowledgments
This research was financially supported by the Polish Ministry 
of Science and Higher Education (theme: 500-01-ZJ-03).
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Welcome
Welcome to the sixth volume of the International Journal of Orientation & Mobility. 
I’ve never been a certifi ed orientation and mobility (O&M) specialist or a peripatologist but 
for 51 years I have been an observer of O&M professionals and the O&M fi eld.
My fi rst observations were of Bruce Blasch as a student at Western Michigan University.
I observed him, under blindfold, walking down the middle of the street.  He thought he was
on the sidewalk and of course blamed me, as the observer, for not correcting him when he
stepped off the curb.  From that time on I realised I had a responsibility and a fulltime job to
observe and correct him as needed.
Earliest memories of the fi eld were of Don Blasch, Stan Suterko, and Larry Blaha.  These
men were some of the pioneers and leaders in a new profession.  My observations of them 
were as a working group looking forward asking what next and who will do it? They did this
by challenging and encouraging the students and new practitioners who came after them. 
The 1964 Class of O&M graduates took the challenge spreading their industriousness 
and enthusiasm across the country:  Bob Crouse to Georgia, Bob La Duke to New York,
and Bruce Blasch to Utah.  Together they worked in the fi eld of blindness for close to a 
combined 140 years.  They served as O&M practitioners, college professors, researchers,
directors of centres for the blind, executive directors of associations of the blind, authors,
and most importantly mentors and teachers of the next generation.
I watched Bruce grow from a questioning student to a motivated professional in the
fi eld.  It started with late night discussions, at kitchen tables, brain storming the next step
to advance O&M.  In fact during one of these discussions, I went into labor with twins and 
had to plead my case for a ride to the hospital vs. the seriousness of O&M table talk.  To all
of you who have read the “Big Red” series, I lived the development of each edition in my 
home sharing Bruce with Rick Welsh and Bill Wiener for many years.  By the third edition 
we were moving across the country from Georgia to Idaho.  Bruce insisted we move close to
60 boxes because the third edition wasn’t completed and valuable information was housed 
in those boxes. We lowered it down to 30 with the book being published.
I observed O&M mature from a new fi eld into a recognised profession:  professional
textbook, Division 9 certifi cation, International Mobility Conferences, generic mobility, all
groups working with mobility of the blind coming together, and the fourth edition of “Big 
Red” – in the future.
My fi nal observations are these:  Great mentors challenge and encourage great mentees.
Orientation and Mobility as a profession is privileged to have each and every one of you.  As
this generation is ready to pass the torch, I remind you we still have 30 boxes to be awarded 
to the fi rst caller.
Barbara Blasch Ed.D
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