Microbiological assessment at slaughter of chicken carcasses from commercial, backyard and semi-backyard production systems.

Débora Tamanaha Garcia,Priscila Cristina Costa,Kênia De Fátima Carrijo,Alexandre Bicalho Do Amaral,Yago Fernandes Nascimento,Marcus Vinícius Cossi,Sthefany Da Cunha Dias,Amanda Oliveira Moura,Phelipe Augusto Borba Martins Peres

doi:10.3855/jidc.14882

Abstract

Smaller scale, alternative, chicken production systems are gaining popularity globally. However, this brings public health and market confidence concerns, especially where there are no established standards of production. The aim of this study was to carry out a microbiological analysis of chicken carcasses from the commercial, backyard and semi-backyard production systems, slaughtered in the same slaughterhouse. Samples of 102 chicken carcasses were taken in two steps of the slaughter (A: after bleeding; and B: after chiller tank) and were subjected to aerobic mesophilic, coliforms at 35 °C and coliforms at 45 °C counts, and Salmonella spp. detection. Salmonella spp. isolates were subjected to antimicrobial resistance analysis. At slaughter step A, carcasses from the backyard system had less contamination than carcasses from the commercial system, with a difference of 0.7 log10 CFU/mL. Salmonella was identified in carcasses of all production systems and in both slaughter steps. Nine chicken carcasses were positive for Salmonella and no significant difference was observed in the occurrence of Salmonella amongst the carcasses from different production systems. Two Salmonella isolates, that presented the highest resistance profiles (one isolate was resistant to eight and the other to six out of ten tested antibiotics), were identified on carcasses from the semi-backyard system. Carcasses from the backyard system had a lower microbial count at the initial step of the slaughter process than the commercial production system. In addition, greater resistance to antimicrobials was observed in Salmonella isolates from semi-backyard system.

Highlights

Smaller scale, alternative, chicken production systems are gaining popularity globally
The results of the aerobic mesophilic (AM) counts indicated that total contamination declined during the slaughter process for all production systems analyzed, as indicated in Table 1 (p < 0.05)
At step B, there were no significant differences between the means of contamination by mesophilic aerobes in relation to the different production systems

Summary

Introduction

Alternative, chicken production systems are gaining popularity globally. The aim of this study was to carry out a microbiological analysis of chicken carcasses from the commercial, backyard and semi-backyard production systems, slaughtered in the same slaughterhouse. Methodology: Samples of 102 chicken carcasses were taken in two steps of the slaughter (A: after bleeding; and B: after chiller tank) and were subjected to aerobic mesophilic, coliforms at 35 °C and coliforms at 45 °C counts, and Salmonella spp. detection. Salmonella was identified in carcasses of all production systems and in both slaughter steps. Brazil is the world's second largest producer and exporter of broiler meat, exporting to more than 131 countries [1] This good performance reflects the quality, price and global confidence in the safety of products produced in this country [2]. The search for hygiene indicator microorganisms (aerobic mesophilic, coliforms, enterobactereaceae, Escherichia coli), and the presence of pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shigella, Listeria) is fundamental for monitoring hygiene practices in poultry slaughterhouses [5,10,12,13]

Objectives

Methods

Results