ARS | Publication request: SURVIVAL OF CAMPYLOBACTER JEJUNI ON STERILE CHICKEN BREAST BURGERS STORED AT REFRIGERATION AND AMBIENT TEMPERATURES

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: March 15, 2002
Publication Date: July 1, 2002
Citation: YOON, K., BURNETTE, C.N., OSCAR, T.P. SURVIVAL OF CAMPYLOBACTER JEJUNI ON STERILE CHICKEN BREAST BURGERS STORED AT REFRIGERATION AND AMBIENT TEMPERATURES. MEETING ABSTRACT. 2002. pp. 112.

Technical Abstract: Campylobacter is recognized as the most frequent cause of foodborne bacterial diarrhea in humans. Although usual food storage conditions are not associated with the growth of Campylobacter, it is very important to predict how well Campylobacter will survive at ambient and refrigerated temperatures because as few as 500 cells can cause illness. The objective of this study was to model the kinetics of Campylobacter survival and death on sterile chicken breast burgers incubated at refrigeration and ambient temperatures. Burgers were inoculated with 106 stationary phase cells of a single strain of Campylobacter jejuni (ATCC 43051) and stored at 4 to 30 C under aerobic conditions. The modeling results indicated that a two or three phase linear model fit the survival curves well (R2 = 0.97 to 0.99) at all incubation temperatures. An initial lag phase was followed by a linear decrease in cell population, which varied by rate depending on the temperature, and in some cases by a bottom plateau of survival. Results indicated that Campylobacter jejuni can survive well at refrigerated temperatures under aerobic conditions, but shorter survival characterized by shorter lag time and faster death rates were observed on burgers stored at ambient temperatures. The data collected in this study will be used to develop a predictive model that will be added to the USDA, Pathogen Modeling Program, which presently does not contain a survival model for Campylobacter.