Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #140861
Title: PERSISTENCE OF SALMONELLA APPLIED TO BREAST SKIN ONE HOUR PRIOR TO SCALDING AND PICKING OF FEATHERED AND FEATHERLESS (SCALELESS) BROILERS

Author
item Buhr, Richard - Jeff
item Hinton Jr, Arthur
item Ingram, Kimberly
item BOURASSA, D - UGA
item FLETCHER, D - UGA

Submitted to: Southern Poultry Science Society Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/5/2002
Publication Date: 7/6/2003
Citation: Buhr, R.J., Hinton Jr, A., Ingram, K.D., Bourassa, D.V., Fletcher, D.L. 2003. Persistence of salmonella applied to breast skin one hour prior to scalding and picking of feathered and featherless (scaleless) broilers. [abstract] Southern Poultry Science Society Meeting. 82(suppl.1):108.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A series of processing trials was conducted to determine the relative persistence of Salmonella applied to breast skin of feathered and ¿featherless¿ (scaleless) broilers that were scalded and picked 1 h after application. The breast skin surface of feathered and featherless broilers with matched body weights were inoculated with 1 mL of 107 Salmonella typhimurium suspended in the cecal contents and returned to coops. Control broilers were not inoculated. Feathered or featherless broilers were processed three at a time in eight consecutive batches; inoculated followed by non-inoculated feathered or featherless broilers. The breast skin was aseptically removed from the carcass and stomached in peptone water. Salmonella was enumerated in an aliquot of rinsate from each skin sample, and another portion of each rinsate was enriched for Salmonella to detect the presence of low levels of the human pathogen. At the beginning of each processing day broilers that were not scalded and picked were sampled without inoculation (0 of 12 Salmonella positive) and 1 h after inoculation (recovery at log10 5.7 cfu / g of breast skin for feathered and log10 3.8 for featherless broilers). Enrichment procedures detected Salmonella in 19 of 22 samples in which the number of Salmonella was too low to be detected through enumeration by direct plating. The prevalence of recovery following enrichment from inoculated feathered broilers was 50% (6 / 12 positive) and was similar (P = 0.6818) for featherless broilers 58.3% (7 / 12). The prevalence of recovery from the subsequent batch of non-inoculated broilers was 33.3% (4 / 12) for feathered and 41.7% (5 / 12) for featherless broilers (P = 0.3372). The presence or absence of feathers and feather follicles on the broiler carcass does not appear to influence the recovery of Salmonella distributed on breast skin 1 h prior to scalding and picking. Furthermore, scalding and picking were not able to eliminate Salmonella applied to breast skin prior to processing, and Salmonella remained within the picker and was distributed onto subsequent non-inoculated carcasses even though the picker was throughly cleaned with hot water (>82.2 C; 180 F) between each batch of broilers.