The source of campylobacter on
poultry farms and in processing plants is probably the birds lungs, according
to the latest research.
The bacteria can contaminate live
chickens during production or transport, or catcasses during scalding. In
either case, campylobacter moves to contaminate respiratory air sacs and could
then contaminate the abdominal cavity.
Microbiologist studied
campylobacter before and after chicken carcasses were scalded to remove the
feathers, an intergal step in poultry processing.
In a commercial processing plant,
researchers collected ten carcasses on each of three days, before and after
scalding. They rinsed the whole carcasses and respiratory tracts and took
samples for campylobacter, E. coli and other bacteria.
The resulst showed the same type
of campylobacter were in the carcass and respiratory tract samples. The number
and type of campylobacter in the respiratory tracts remained the same before
and after scalding.
This suggests the respiratory
tract is an important source of campylobacter contamination in the interior of
the carcass before sculding. The airborne bacteria could be inhaled by the live
birds during production or transport, meaning significant levels of the
bacteria were already in their respiratory tracts before processing.
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