Thermal Inactivation of H5N1 High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Virus in Naturally Infected Chicken Meat

Abstract

Thermal inactivation of the H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) virus strain A/chicken/Korea/ES/2003 (Korea/03) was quantitatively measured in thigh and breast meat harvested from infected chickens. The Korea/03 titers were recorded as the mean embryo infectious dose (EID50) and were 108.0 EID50/g in uncooked thigh samples and 107.5 EID50/g in uncooked breast samples. Survival curves were constructed for Korea/03 in chicken thigh and breast meat at 1°C intervals for temperatures of 57 to 61°C. Although some curves had a slightly biphasic shape, a linear model provided a fair-to-good fit at all temperatures, with R2 values of 0.85 to 0.93. Stepwise linear regression revealed that meat type did not contribute significantly to the regression model and generated a single linear regression equation for z-value calculations and D-value predictions for Korea/03 in both meat types. The z-value and the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval for the z-value were 4.64 and 5.32°C, respectively. From the lowest temperature to the highest, the predicted D-values and the upper limits of their 95% prediction intervals (conservative D-values) for 57 to 61°C were 241.2 and 321.1 s, 146.8 and 195.4 s, 89.3 and 118.9 s, 54.4 and 72.4 s, and 33.1 and 44.0 s. D-values and conservative D-values predicted for higher temperatures were 0.28 and 0.50 s for 70°C and 0.041 and 0.073 s for 73.9°C. Calculations with the conservative D-values predicted that cooking chicken meat according to current U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service time-temperature guidelines will inactivate Korea/03 in a heavily contaminated meat sample, such as those tested in this study, with a large margin of safety.