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PROCESSING, PRODUCTS, AND FOOD SAFETY |






* USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Poultry Microbiological Safety Research Unit, Athens, GA 30604;
Food Laboratory, Environment and Food Agency of Iceland, IS-112 Reykjavik, Iceland;
Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2H 8P9; and
Agricultural Agency of Iceland, IS-112 Reykjavik, Iceland
1 Corresponding author: norman.stern{at}ars.usda.gov
| ABSTRACT |
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20 carcasses per group) were compared from 2003 to 2004. The Campylobacter-positive weep frequency was 84.8%, whereas the frequency for rinse samples was 74.4% (P < 0.001). Enumeration of Campylobacter spp. on positive samples ranged from 0.70 to 6.13 log10 cfu/mL of weep (geometric mean of 2.84) and from 2.30 to 7.72 log10 cfu/100 mL of rinse (geometric mean of 4.38). The correlations between weep and rinse were 0.814 with 0.5 mL of rinse and 0.6294 when applying 0.1 mL of rinse The quantitative regression analyses for these 2 corresponding tests were log10 rinse (for 0.5 mL of inoculum) = 1.1965 log10 weep + 0.4979, and log10 rinse (for 0.1 mL of inoculum) = 1.322 log10 weep 0.1521. FlaA SVR sequencing of isolates indicated that the same genotypes were found in weep and rinse samples. Weep and rinse sampling led to different proportions of Campylobacter-positive carcasses detection, but we demonstrated that this difference was reduced by increasing the amount of rinse fluid used for plating.
Key Words: Campylobacter frequency enumeration weep rinse
| INTRODUCTION |
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One consequence of selling only frozen carcasses was the reduced exposure to greater numbers of the organism via broilers. Freezing of broiler carcasses resulted in an approximate 2log reduction of C. jejuni numbers (Stern et al., 1985). Among 5 lots of processed broilers, levels of naturally contaminated Campylobacter on carcasses were reduced by log mean values ranging from 0.65 to 2.87 after 31 d of storage under frozen conditions (Georgsson et al., 2006). In 1995, regulations changed in Iceland, along with increased consumer demand for fresh product, and, consequently, the public was exposed to greater amounts of fresh poultry having increased levels of the pathogen.
Therefore, we wished to determine the frequency and numbers of Campylobacter associated with freshly processed broilers, which represents a measure of consumer risk. Although the regulatory measure used to monitor microbiological quality of broiler carcasses has traditionally been rinse sampling, discussions and presentations at various meetings involving the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control, and Health Canada have suggested that poultry weep sampling might serve as a superior measure to assess public exposure to Campylobacter associated with product (R. Lowman, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, personal communications). Musgrove et al. (2003) compared weep and rinse procedures for qualitative detection of the organism and found no significant difference between the methods. The present paper addresses how weep and rinse from poultry carcasses compare qualitatively and quantitatively to one another.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Immediately after the lot was processed, carcasses were placed into ready-to-ship commercial containers and held in storage. At up to 30 h after processing, the accumulated free fluids were aspirated by a sterile pipet and surface plated directly. Subsequently, each carcass was aseptically transferred into a new sterile plastic bag, 100 mL of distilled water was added, and each carcass vigorously shaken by hand for
60 s. After being rinsed, the carcass was aseptically removed, and the rinse suspension was used for subsequent microbiological analysis.
Microbiology
Serial, logarithmic dilutions were made using sodium peptone water for the weep samples and distilled water for the rinse samples and then plated onto Campy-Cefex agar (Stern et al., 1992). Each sample was quantitatively analyzed for Campylobacter. Volumes of 0.1 or 0.5 mL (rinse samples) from the undiluted samples and 0.1 mL of 101 to 104 dilutions were surface plated onto duplicate Campy-Cefex plates. Before inoculation, plates to receive 0.5 mL were dried for 40 min at 37°C to obtain separated colonies. Other plates were dried for 20 min at 37°C. The inoculated plates were held in zip-sealed plastic bags and incubated at 41.5°C for 48 h. A microaerobic condition was created using gas mixtures of 5 to 10% O2, 70 to 85% N2, and 10 to 20% CO2 expelled through an inserted hose to thoroughly purge the bags of the normal atmosphere. After incubation, suspect colonies, preferentially from plates containing 15 to 150 colonies, were counted, and 3 colonies from each plate were confirmed using colony morphology, Gram stain, biochemical tests, and latex agglutination assays. The results were calculated as colony-forming units of Campylobacter spp. per 100 mL of distilled water rinse fluid or per milliliter of the weep fluid.
Molecular Typing
Isolates collected from broiler ceca, weep sampling, and rinse sampling of 2 broiler flocks were typed using the flaA short variable region (flaA SVR; Meinersmann et al., 1997). DNA was prepared from frozen stocks by placing 10 µL of glycerol stock in 50 µL of sterile, distilled water. Cells were lysed at 100°C for 5 min. Microcentrifuge tubes containing DNA samples were spun briefly to precipitate cellular debris (Hiett et al., 2002). The DNA was prepared for unrecoverable isolates by pipetting 40 µL of Wangs transport medium into 200 µL of sterile distilled water, boiling these samples at 100°C for 5 min, and spinning to precipitate cellular debris (Callicott et al., 2005). In both cases, the flaA SVR was then amplified using the primers Fla4F (5'-GGA TTT CGT ATT AAC ACA AAT GGT GC-3'; Nachamkin et al., 1993) and FlaA625RU (Meinersmann et al., 1997) with a reaction mix containing 2 mM MgCl2, 0.125 µM of each primer, 0.8 mM each of dNTP, and 2.5 U of AmpliTaq in a 100-µL reaction. Tubes were subjected to 35 cycles of 94°C for 45 s, 55°C for 45 s, and 72°C for 1 min, followed by a 5-min extension at 72°C. Sequencing was performed using degenerate primers Fla106F (5'-GAY GAT GCT TCW GGK ATG-3') and FlaA625RU by BigDye@terminator 3.1 chemistry (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). Sequence data were obtained using a 3730 DNA Analyzer (Applied Biosystems). The 359-nucleotide region between primers FlaA242FU (Meinersmann et al., 1997) and FlaA625RU was used for allelic comparisons.
Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis of the levels of Campylobacter in the weep vs. the rinse sample was assessed (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Corp., Seattle, WA). McNemars test (95% con-fidence interval) was used to determine whether the proportions of positive tests were different from one sampling method to the other. Regression analyses for weep vs. rinse sample enumeration were determined for 0.1-and 0.5-mL rinse aliquots inoculated per plate.
| RESULTS |
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2 = 57.3 when comparing weep with rinse with 0.1 mL to
2 = 5.8 when comparing weep with rinse with 0.5 mL.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Health concerns over the organism are expressed in a recent World Health Organization (2005) surveillance program newsletter article which indicated that qualitative and quantitative occurrence of Campylobacter in broiler chickens along the farm-to-fork continuum should be collected and validated. Pursuant to the question of Campylobacter numbers, Nannapaneni et al. (2005) reported that total colony-forming units of ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter on carcass rinses in Arkansas ranged up to 4.06, 3.95, and to 3.04 log10 cfu/carcass in 2001, 2002, and 2003, respectively. Jorgensen et al. (2002) reported levels of Campylobacter on carcasses from retail outlets in England during the winters of 1998 and 1999. In that study, the log10 colony-forming units of Campylobacter spp. were 2.70 to 4.99 in 18% of the chickens and 5.00 to 6.99 in 20% of the carcasses sampled. In Italy, among 213 carcasses sampled, the overall estimated mean count per carcass was 5.16 ± 0.80, with the greatest level per flock averaging 6.13 log10 cfu/carcass (Manfreda et al., 2006). Stern and Robach (2003) reported the average numbers of Campylobacter spp. per broiler carcass in northern Georgia had decreased from 4.11 to 3.05 log10 cfu from 1995 to 2001. Throughout the United States from September 2003 through September 2004, 4,200 carcasses were sampled, and approximately 3.6% of the commercially processed broiler carcasses had greater than 105 cfu of Campylobacter spp. per carcass (Stern and Pretanik, 2006). In the present study among known contaminated carcasses, the average rinse numbers per carcass lot ranged from 2.95 to 5.94 log10 cfu (Table 2
) with 41, 38, and 19% of the lots with results between 3 to 4, 4 to 5, and 5 to 6 log10, respectively.
Results from a previous study in Iceland by Georgsson et al. (2006) showed among 5 processed broiler lots (50 carcasses), the average carcass rinse per lot ranged from 4.66 to 6.07 log10 and was distributed as 50, 32, 14, and 4% among 4 to 5, 5 to 6, 6 to 7, and 7 to 8 log10, respectively. These earlier results for fresh broilers in Iceland were considerably higher than found in the present study. One explanation for the reduced numbers seen in the present study is that the flocks tested were Campylobacter negative at
32 d of age and only became colonized during the last 4.1 ± 0.9 d before slaughter, whereas flocks in the previous study were demonstrated as positive prior to
32 d of age. Colonization levels would be expected to increase with additional rearing time (Stern et al., 2005). An additional conclusion posed is that even though a control program to exclude naturally contaminated broilers from the market (by testing production flocks at
32 d) cannot assure all fresh broilers are Campylobacter free, our data indicate that such inspection and altering how the product is distributed will reduce the level of public exposure.
The World Health Organization has suggested that weep fluids from processed poultry may provide a superior estimate of consumer exposure to Campylobacter spp. Regulatory Agencies in both Iceland and the United States routinely use rinse methodology to assess the microbiological quality of poultry carcasses in the processing plants. Weep sampling requires packaging and storing the carcasses until the weep fluid accumulates in the packaging material (
24 h). The package must then be aseptically opened and the weep aspirated for microbiological sampling. The quantity of weep materials produced is highly variable among each carcass and is, in part, dependent upon how many abrasions the carcass received during its processing, how well the carcass was drained after chilling, and the length of time the carcass was held in storage.
Weep samples may vary from 0.5 mL to several milliliters per carcass. As a confounder, the Campylobacter enumeration may vary with the amount of weep accumulated. To accomplish their goals, inspectors among regulatory agencies must work in a timely manner and must have a consistent sampling protocol. The variation in weep sample quantity disregards this requirement. Conversely, rinse samples are typically taken at the end of the broiler processing line and consistent quantities of diluent are added to individual carcasses. The carcass rinse agitation is prescribed for a certain arc and duration. This rinse sampling remains the standard and, as shown in this paper, has substantial agreement with the weep sample method. When 0.5 mL of direct plating was used for quantitative rinse analyses, the substantial regression with the weep plating (R2 = 0.814) further supported the traditional sampling approach. When combined with the correlation coefficients indicated, this regression analysis enabled us to conclude that the 2 sample methods were highly predictive of one another. Despite the fact weep and rinse sampling approaches led to different results in terms of the proportion of Campylobacter-positive carcasses, it was demonstrated that this difference was reduced by increasing the amount of fluid used for the rinse method.
Regulatory agencies and the poultry industries are increasingly concerned over what levels of Campylobacter associated with broiler carcasses is a human health hazard. Answers to this question should be made using an acceptable method that can be incorporated into an ongoing regulatory regimen. After a method has been accepted, a rigorous comparison of poultry-borne Campylobacter exposure levels to the risk of human disease will be needed to draw the line between limited risk and substantial risk related to contamination of poultry carcasses.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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Received for publication June 2, 2006. Accepted for publication September 18, 2006.
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