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Title: Thermal inactivation of avian influenza and Newcastle disease viruses in chicken meat

Author
item Thomas, Colleen
item King, Daniel
item Swayne, David

Submitted to: Journal of Food Protection
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/1/2008
Publication Date: 6/1/2008
Citation: Thomas, C., King, D.J., Swayne, D.E. 2008. Thermal inactivation of avian influenza and Newcastle disease viruses in chicken meat. Journal of Food Protection. 71(6):1214-1222.

Interpretive Summary: High pathogenicity avian influenza viruses (AIV) and high virulence Newcastle disease viruses (NDV) cause very deadly disease in chickens, and the viruses spread within their bodies with virus being present in the meat. By contrast, milder strains of AIV and NDV are not present in meat of infected chickens, but the virus grows in the respiratory and digestive systems and could contaminate the surface of carcasses during processing. AIV and NDV can be spread by movement of infected birds or their products. This study demonstrated that cooking inactivated a H5 high pathogenicity AIV strain and high virulent NDV strain present in meat from infected chickens, and milder strains of AIV and NDV that were artificially added to chicken meat. The current USDA-FSIS time-temperature guidelines for cooking chicken meat for a 7 log reduction of Salmonella would also effectively inactivate the AIV and NDV strains tested.

Technical Abstract: High pathogenicity avian influenza viruses (AIV) and high virulence Newcastle disease viruses (NDV) cause severe systemic disease with high mortality in chickens, and can be isolated from the meat of infected chickens. Although low pathogenicity AIV and low virulence NDV strains are typically not present in chicken meat, virus in respiratory secretions or feces are possible sources of carcass contamination. Because spread of AIV and NDV is associated with movement of infected birds or their products, the presence of these viruses in chicken meat is cause for concern. This study presents thermal inactivation data for two H5N2 AIV strains (A/chicken/Pennsylvania/1370/1983 and A/chicken/Texas/298313/2004) and two NDV strains (APMV-1/chicken/California/S0212676/2002 and APMV-1/chicken/Northern Ireland/Ulster/1967). Under the conditions of the assay, high pathogenicity AIV (but not high virulence NDV) in meat from infected chickens was inactivated more slowly than in artificially infected chicken meat with a similar virus titer. Linear regression models predicted that the current USDA-FSIS time-temperature guidelines for cooking chicken meat for a 7 log reduction of Salmonella would also effectively inactivate the AIV and NDV strains tested. Experimentally, temperatures of 70ºC and 73.9ºC were shown to be effective for rapid inactivation of the AIV and NDV strains used in this study, as well as for inactivation of the previously studied H5N1 high pathogenicity AIV strain A/chicken/Korea/ES/2003.