Application of Ionized Reactive Oxygen Species for Disinfection of Carcasses, Table Eggs, and Fertile Eggs

Abstract

We evaluated the effect of ionized reactive oxygen species created using Binary Ionization Technology (BIT) for disinfection of broiler carcasses, table eggs, and treatment of fertile eggs. Previous research has indicated that BIT creates a high concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that lyse bacterial cells on contact. Application of BIT to broiler carcasses that had been intentionally inoculated with 1.58 × 106Salmonella enterica Enteritidis (SE) caused a 1 to 3 log reduction in recoverable SE, depending on the duration of the treatment. Additionally, after inoculation of table eggs with 6.8 × 108 cfu of SE, we recovered SE from 95% fewer eggs following enrichment and found significantly fewer (7.77 and 7.41 log reduction) colony-forming units recovered from eggs treated with BIT compared with nontreated control eggs. We also evaluated whether application of the BIT treatment had any effect on hatchability of broiler breeder eggs to determine whether use of this technology could be feasible in a hatchery environment for disinfection of eggs. There were no significant effects of BIT on the hatchability (of total set) of treated eggs as compared with nontreated control eggs; however, there was a slight numerical increase in hatchability, between 5 and 10% in 2 trials. These data suggest that application of BIT technology to carcasses and table eggs could reduce contamination with pathogens and that the application to fertile eggs may not have effects on hatchability of eggs set.