Skip to main content
PMC home page
American Journal of Public Health logoLink to American Journal of Public Health
. 1986 Apr;76(4):401–406. doi: 10.2105/ajph.76.4.401

A survey of Campylobacter and other bacterial contaminants of pre-market chicken and retail poultry and meats, King County, Washington.

N V Harris, D Thompson, D C Martin, C M Nolan
PMCID: PMC1646508  PMID: 3953916

Abstract

As part of a larger study to determine the flow of Campylobacter and Salmonella from food animals to humans during 1982-83, 1,936 swabs were collected for bacteriologic study from pre-market chickens, retail poultry, and other retail meats as well as from equipment and work surfaces used to process such foods. Of the 297 samples collected in a poultry processing plant, 56.6 per cent were positive for Campylobacter jejuni/coli (CJC), as were 23.1 per cent of the 862 retail chicken, and 17.2 per cent of the 29 retail game hen samples. CJC was found infrequently in retail turkey, pork, and beef samples. Contamination of retail and pre-market chicken with CJC appeared to increase as the week progressed, and in pre-market chicken, later in the day. Less than 5 per cent of the retail samples of poultry, beef, and pork were found to contain Yersinia or Salmonella. However, Salmonella was cultured from 14.8 per cent of the swabs taken from the processing plant with 68 per cent of 44 Salmonellas being isolated concurrently with CJC. Tetracycline resistance which was plasmid-mediated was the most common antibiotic resistance observed, and was carried by 23.8 per cent of all CJC isolates. Overall, 38.8 per cent of all CJC isolates were resistant to ampicillin, erythromycin, streptomycin, or tetracycline, either singly or in combination.

Full text

PDF
401

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Christenson B., Ringner A., Blücher C., Billaudelle H., Gundtoft K. N., Eriksson G., Böttiger M. An outbreak of campylobacter enteritis among the staff of a poultry abattoir in Sweden. Scand J Infect Dis. 1983;15(2):167–172. doi: 10.3109/inf.1983.15.issue-2.07. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Gill C. O., Harris L. M. Contamination of red-meat carcasses by Campylobacter fetus subsp. jejuni. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1982 May;43(5):977–980. doi: 10.1128/aem.43.5.977-980.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Hopkins R. S., Olmsted R., Istre G. R. Endemic Campylobacter jejuni infection in Colorado: identified risk factors. Am J Public Health. 1984 Mar;74(3):249–250. doi: 10.2105/ajph.74.3.249. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Hopkins R. S., Scott A. S. Handling raw chicken as a source for sporadic Campylobacter jejuni infections. J Infect Dis. 1983 Oct;148(4):770–770. doi: 10.1093/infdis/148.4.770. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hänninen M. L., Raevuori M. Occurrence of Campylobacter fetus subsp. jejuni and Yersinia enterocolitica in domestic animals and in some foods of animal origin in Finland. Nord Vet Med. 1981 Sep-Nov;33(9-11):441–445. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Kinde H., Genigeorgis C. A., Pappaioanou M. Prevalence of Campylobacter jejuni in chicken wings. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1983 Mar;45(3):1116–1118. doi: 10.1128/aem.45.3.1116-1118.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Luechtefeld N. W., Wang W. L. Campylobacter fetus subsp. jejuni in a turkey processing plant. J Clin Microbiol. 1981 Feb;13(2):266–268. doi: 10.1128/jcm.13.2.266-268.1981. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Rosef O., Kapperud G. Isolation of Campylobacter fetus subsp. jejuni from faeces of Norwegian poultry. Acta Vet Scand. 1982;23(1):128–134. doi: 10.1186/BF03546829. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Shanker S., Rosenfield J. A., Davey G. R., Sorrell T. C. Campylobacter jejuni: incidence in processed broilers and biotype distribution in human and broiler isolates. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1982 May;43(5):1219–1220. doi: 10.1128/aem.43.5.1219-1220.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Smeltzer T. I. Isolation of Campylobacter jejuni from poultry carcases. Aust Vet J. 1981 Nov;57(11):511–512. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-0813.1981.tb05785.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Tenover F. C., Williams S., Gordon K. P., Nolan C., Plorde J. J. Survey of plasmids and resistance factors in Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1985 Jan;27(1):37–41. doi: 10.1128/aac.27.1.37. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Wempe J. M., Genigeorgis C. A., Farver T. B., Yusufu H. I. Prevalence of Campylobacter jejuni in two California chicken processing plants. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1983 Feb;45(2):355–359. doi: 10.1128/aem.45.2.355-359.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Yamamura K., Sato I., Fujimoto N. [Isolation of Campylobacter jejuni from chicken feces and their survival period in minced chicken]. Kansenshogaku Zasshi. 1983 Sep;57(9):817–822. doi: 10.11150/kansenshogakuzasshi1970.57.817. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from American Journal of Public Health are provided here courtesy of American Public Health Association

RESOURCES