Genotyping of thermotolerant Campylobacter from poultry slaughterhouse by amplified fragment length polymorphism
2007
Johnsen, G. | Kruse, H. | Hofshagen, M.
To examine the occurrence, diversity and transmission of Campylobacter in a poultry slaughterhouse. During a 4-week period, a slaughterhouse was sampled alternately during slaughtering and the following mornings post-disinfection. Samples were taken from poultry at six stages in the slaughter process and from 25 environmental sites. For positive broiler flocks slaughtered on one occasion, 92% and 48% of the environmental sites were positive during slaughter and post-disinfection, respectively. For positive laying hen flocks slaughtered on three occasions, 8-56% and 12-20% of the environmental sites were positive during slaughter and post-disinfection, respectively. Genetic fingerprinting by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) of the 109 isolates obtained resulted in 28 different AFLP clones. Five AFLP clones were present for more than 1 week. Slaughtering of Campylobacter-positive broilers resulted in extensive contamination of the slaughterhouse, including the air. A high proportion of the laying hen flocks were Campylobacter positive, but these caused less environmental contamination than the broilers. This, together with the freezing of all layer carcasses, results in a lower public health risk from laying hens, when compared with broilers. When slaughtering Campylobacter-positive broilers, the implementation of preventive measures is important to reduce contamination of negative carcasses and to protect the workers against infection.
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