Campylobacter in Street Vended Poultry Meat Meals and its Public Health Hazard

Abstract

In this study, a total of (250) samples were collected from different ready to eat poultry meat products, (50) samples from each of (Chicken Bannae, Chicken Shawarma, Chicken Phaheta, Chicken Shesh kabab, Chicken Zinger) from vending sites and restaurants of different localities of different level of hygienic measures in Cairo governorate to detect and identify the Campylobacter species bacteriologically by direct plating and selective enrichment methods and by PCR. As regards to the Bacteriological examination of (250) collected ready to eat poultry products meal, the obtained results revealed the isolation of Campylobacter spp. from (8) samples with a prevalence rate reached (3.2%) by studding the morphological identification on the selective culture media and microscopically identification as well as the biochemical reactions. On the other hand, the all isolated strains proved to be C. jejuni by molecular identification (PCR assay) using specific primers. For experimental challenge, the isolated strains of Campylobacter jejuni were cultured to investigate the role of cross - contamination in disseminating campylobacter from raw poultry within a food service operation specializing in poultry dishes. Samples were collected weekly from environmental surfaces and various kitchen surfaces used at different stages of the preparation process from a retail poultry food service operation. The obtained results revealed that with use of an inoculum of 107 cells, viable C. jejuni could not be recovered from the stainless steel surface after 1 hrs. of drying. Also, Campylobacter spp. were not detected in any of the 125 restaurant samples collected The results indicated that as few as 100 Campylobacter cells could be detected if sampling was done within 45 min of inoculation; however, despite the reported high prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in ready to eat poultry meal, this organism was not detected on surfaces within a kitchen of a restaurant specializing in Poultry dishes. This inability to detect Campylobacters may be related to routine cleaning of preparation surfaces, adequate preparation and storage of foodstuffs, good worker hygiene, and physical separation of raw foods from cooked foods, limiting cross-contamination. It is also likely that the lack of Campylobacters in samples from this high-volume retail food service operation may also be attributed to the sensitivity of Campylobacter spp. to drying conditions.