Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The Journal of Hygiene logoLink to The Journal of Hygiene
. 1983 Dec;91(3):479–490. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400060526

Incidence and properties of Staphylococcus aureus associated with turkeys during processing and further-processing operations.

B W Adams, G C Mead
PMCID: PMC2129338  PMID: 6663063

Abstract

The incidence of Staphylococcus aureus on turkeys sampled at various stages of processing and further-processing was determined on four occasions at each of three different processing plants. For freshly-slaughtered birds, counts from neck skin varied from plant to plant over the range less than 10(2) to greater than 10(5)/g but in all cases the corresponding counts obtained from carcasses sampled after chilling rarely exceeded 10(3)/g and the same was true for samples of mechanically recovered meat (MRM), the final raw product examined. Despite the limited susceptibility of isolates from the different factories to typing by means of either standard human or poultry bacteriophages (55-94% untypable), evidence was obtained with the aid of biotyping for the presence of both human and animal-derived strains. However, some biotypes isolated from MRM were not detected at earlier stages of processing. At one processing plant, an "indigenous' type of S. aureus was clearly demonstrated. It occurred in high numbers in the defeathering machines (up to 10(5)/swab), was found on carcasses at all subsequent stages of processing over the survey period and was shown to survive routine cleaning and disinfection procedures. Isolates of this type produced unusually large amounts of extracellular "slime' in artificial culture. Two of the three processing plants yielded isolates which were enterotoxigenic. Of 55 strains from Plant 1, 60% produced enterotoxin C and all were of the "indigenous' type. In the case of Plant 2, only two type D- and one type F-producing strain were found.

Full text

PDF
479

Selected References

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

  1. Devriese L. A., Devos A. H., van Damme L. R. Quantitative aspects of the Staphylococcus aureus flora of poultry. Poult Sci. 1975 Jan;54(1):95–101. doi: 10.3382/ps.0540095. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Donnelly C. B., Leslie J. E., Black L. A., Lewis K. H. Serological identification of enterotoxigenic staphylococci from cheese. Appl Microbiol. 1967 Nov;15(6):1382–1387. doi: 10.1128/am.15.6.1382-1387.1967. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Gibbs P. A., Patterson J. T., Harvey J. Biochemical characteristics and enterotoxigenicity of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from poultry. J Appl Bacteriol. 1978 Feb;44(1):57–74. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1978.tb00777.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gibbs P. A., Patterson J. T., Thompson J. K. Characterization of poultry isolates of Staphylococcus aureus by a new set of poultry phages. J Appl Bacteriol. 1978 Jun;44(3):387–400. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1978.tb00813.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gibbs P. A., Patterson J. T., Thompson J. K. The distribution of Staphylococcus aureus in a poultry processing plant. J Appl Bacteriol. 1978 Jun;44(3):401–410. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1978.tb00814.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Harvey J., Patterson J. T., Gibbs P. A. Enterotoxigenicity of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from poultry: raw poultry carcases as a potential food-poisoning hazard. J Appl Bacteriol. 1982 Apr;52(2):251–258. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1982.tb04847.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hájek V., Marsálek E. The occurrence of enterotoxigenic staphylococcus aureus strains in hosts of different animal species. Zentralbl Bakteriol Orig A. 1973 Jan;223(1):63–68. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. JEFFRIES C. D., HOLTMAN D. F., GUSE D. G. Rapid method for determining the activity of microorganisms on nucleic acids. J Bacteriol. 1957 Apr;73(4):590–591. doi: 10.1128/jb.73.4.590-591.1957. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lacey R. W. Rarity of gene transfer between animal and human isolates of Staphylococcus aureus in vitro. J Gen Microbiol. 1980 Aug;119(2):437–442. doi: 10.1099/00221287-119-2-437. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lachica R. V., Genigeorgis C., Hoeprich P. D. Metachromatic agar-diffusion methods for detecting staphylococcal nuclease activity. Appl Microbiol. 1971 Apr;21(4):585–587. doi: 10.1128/am.21.4.585-587.1971. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Martley F. G., Jarvis A. W., Bacon D. F., Lawrence R. C. Typing of coagulase-positive staphylococci by proteolytic activity on buffered caseinate-agar, with special reference to bacteriophage nontypable strains. Infect Immun. 1970 Oct;2(4):439–442. doi: 10.1128/iai.2.4.439-442.1970. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Martley F. G., Jayashankar S. R., Lawrence R. C. An improved agar medium for the detection of proteolytic organisms in total bacterial counts. J Appl Bacteriol. 1970 Jun;33(2):363–370. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1970.tb02208.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Meyer W. Uber die Brauchbarkeit des Kristallviolett-Testes zur Differenzierung von Staphylococcus aureus-Stämmen. Z Med Mikrobiol Immunol. 1967;153(2):158–168. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Notermans S., Dufrenne J., van Leeuwen W. J. Contamination of broiler chickens by Staphylococcus aureus during processing; incidence and origin. J Appl Bacteriol. 1982 Apr;52(2):275–280. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1982.tb04851.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Robbins R., Gould S., Bergdoll M. Detecting the enterotoxigenicity of Staphylococcus aureus strains. Appl Microbiol. 1974 Dec;28(6):946–950. doi: 10.1128/am.28.6.946-950.1974. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. STRAKA R. P., STOKES J. L. Rapid destruction of bacteria in commonly used diluents and its elimination. Appl Microbiol. 1957 Jan;5(1):21–25. doi: 10.1128/am.5.1.21-25.1957. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Shimizu A. Establishment of a new bacteriophage set for typing avian staphylococci. Am J Vet Res. 1977 Oct;38(10):1601–1605. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Thompson J. K., Gibbs P. A., Patterson J. T. Staphylococcus aureus in commercial laying flocks: incidence and characteristics of strains isolated from chicks, pullets and hens in an integrated commercial enterprise. Br Poult Sci. 1980 Jul;21(4):315–330. doi: 10.1080/00071668008416675. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Wilkinson B. J., Holmes K. M. Staphylococcus aureus cell surface: capsule as a barrier to bacteriophage adsorption. Infect Immun. 1979 Feb;23(2):549–552. doi: 10.1128/iai.23.2.549-552.1979. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Hygiene are provided here courtesy of Cambridge University Press

RESOURCES