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The extent of surface contamination of retailed chickens with Campylobacter jejuni serogroups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

A. M. Hood ,
A. D. Pearson  and
M. Shahamat
A. M. Hood
Affiliation:
Public Health Laboratory, Level B, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton S09 4XY, UK
A. D. Pearson
Affiliation:
Public Health Laboratory, Level B, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton S09 4XY, UK
M. Shahamat
Affiliation:
Public Health Laboratory, Level B, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton S09 4XY, UK
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Eighty-two chickens purchased at 11 retailers (supplied by 12 wholesalers) in the south of England were cultured for Campylobacter jejuni by a method involving total immersion. The organism was isolated from 22 (48%) of 46 fresh birds, 12 of 12 uneviscerated (New York dressed) birds, but only 1 of 24 frozen birds. Viable counts of up to 1·5 × 106/chicken were obtained from fresh birds and 2·4 × 107/chicken from uneviscerated birds. Surface swabbing of breasts, thighs, wings and vents of fresh chickens showed that contamination was generally distributed over the carcasses. Salmonellas were found in only 2 of 69 of the fresh chickens.

The prevalence of several Lior and Penner C. jejuni serogroups was similar in chickens and sporadic human cases of enteritis. Penner serogroup 4 (mostly of Lior serogroup 1) was found in 26% of human isolates and 14% of chicken isolates.

The rising incidence of campylobacter enteritis during the last 6 years could well be a reflection of the increasing proportion of fresh chickens consumed over that period (32% higher in 1986 than in 1981).

Type
Research Article
Information
Epidemiology & Infection , Volume 100 , Issue 1 , February 1988 , pp. 17 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

References

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