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Title: Incidence of Campylobacter from Post-chill Poultry Carcass Rinse Samples by Improved Enrichment Methodologies from a Processing Plant over a Three Day Sampling Period

Author
item Richardson, Larry
item Bailey, Joseph
item Cox Jr, Nelson
item HARRISON, M - UGA
item COX, J - U OF NEW SOUTH WHALES

Submitted to: International Association for Food Protection
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2007
Publication Date: 7/8/2007
Citation: Richardson, L.J., Bailey, J.S., Cox Jr, N.A., Harrison, M.A., Cox, J.M. 2007. Incidence of Campylobacter from Post-chill Poultry Carcass Rinse Samples by Improved Enrichment Methodologies from a Processing Plant over a Three Day Sampling Period. International Association for Food Protection. P2-67:164.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Introduction: Numerous studies have been conducted to improve enrichment procedures to recover injured or stressed Campylobacter cells. Recent studies have shown that utilizing TECRA enrichment broth and modifying the standard procedure can increase the number of positive poultry rinse samples. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate TECRA and Bolton’s enrichment procedures with samples believed to harbor injured, stressed or low levels of cells. Methods: Post-chill carcass rinses (n=150) were obtained from a commercial processing facility. Fifty carcasses were pulled from the processing line over two eight hour processing shifts on each of three consecutive days and rinsed with 100 ml buffered peptone. Several TECRA and Bolton’s enrichment procedures where evaluated along with direct plating for recovery of Campylobacter. After 7 days kept at 4C, the positive rinses where re-evaluated by the best TECRA and Bolton’s enrichment method to determine whether Campylobacter could still be recovered. Results: Overall, 24/150 samples from direct plating and 86/149 enrichment samples were positive for Campylobacter. TECRA broth with delayed addition of antibiotics and reduced temperature for 5 hrs and incorporation of Campy-gas resulted in the greatest number of positive samples at 74/149. Bolton’s procedure with Campy-gas resulted in 46/149 positives. The least effective procedure was Bolton’s without gas where only 12/149 samples were positive. The best TECRA and Bolton’s enrichment procedures recovered 13 and 2 respectively from 86 confirmed positive rinse samples which were stored at 4C for 7 days. Significance: The incorporation of Campy-gas into the procedures and delayed addition of antibiotics in TECRA had the greatest positive effect on recovery of Campylobacter. The value of a more sensitive enrichment procedure was best seen after refrigeration stress where 13 of 86 samples were positive using the best TECRA procedure compared to only 2 of 86 with the best used Bolton’s procedure.