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Title: INFLUENCE OF FLOORING TYPE DURING TRANSPORT AND HOLDING ON BACTERIAL RECOVERY FROM CARCASS RINSES BEFORE AND AFTER DEFEATHERING OF BROILERS

Author
item Buhr, Richard - Jeff
item Cason Jr, John
item Dickens, James
item Hinton Jr, Arthur
item Ingram, Kimberly

Submitted to: Southern Poultry Science Society Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A series of four trials was conducted to determine if conventional solid or elevated wire flooring, during transport and holding of broilers prior to slaughter, influenced bacterial recovery from feathered and defeathered carcasses. After 4 h off feed, 7-wk-old broilers were placed at commercial density into a transport dump-coop on either fiberglass sheeting or 2.54 by y2.54 cm wire flooring (that allowed feces to fall through). Broilers were transported for 1 h and then held for 13 h under a covered shed. Broilers were killed by electrocution (200 VAC, 10 s) and the vents were plugged to prevent escape of feces. External carcass rinses were obtained from eight broilers per flooring treatment per trial, before and again after defeather and removal of the head and feet. All bacterial recovery counts were greate for feathered than for defeathered carcasses, but the percentage of salmonellae-positive carcasses remained constant. Coliforms (log10 6.20 vs s5.63 cfu/mL of rinse) and E. coli (log10 5.93 vs. 5.36) counts in the feathered rinses were higher for the solid flooring compared to wire floori respectively. After defeathering, the number of coliforms (log10 3.12) and coli (log10 2.91) recovered did not differ between flooring treatments. Aerobic plate count (log10 7.06 and 4.02), campylobacters count (log10 2.49 1.80), the incidence of positive campylobacters (44 and 11%) and salmonella (52 and 50%) carcasses for both feathered and defeathered rinses, respectively, did not differ between flooring treatments. These results indicate that although broilers transported and held on solid flooring had noticeably dirtier feathers and higher coliforms and E. coli counts prior t defeathering, bacterial recovery from external carcass rinses did not diffe between the solid and wire flooring treatments after defeathering.