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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #233424
Title: Comparison of neck skin versus whole carcass rinse for incidence of Salmonella and level of E. coli recovered from broiler carcasses

Author
item Cox Jr, Nelson
item Richardson, Larry
item Cason Jr, John
item Buhr, Richard - Jeff
item Smith, Douglas
item Cray, Paula
item DOYLE, M - UGA

Submitted to: International Poultry Forum Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/30/2008
Publication Date: 1/26/2009
Citation: Cox Jr, N.A., Richardson, L.J., Cason Jr, J.A., Buhr, R.J., Smith, D.P., Cray, P.J., Doyle, M.P. 2009. Comparison of neck skin versus whole carcass rinse for incidence of Salmonella and level of E. coli recovered from broiler carcasses [abstract]. International Poultry Forum Proceedings. 88(S1):P217:206.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A regulatory agency (FSIS) in the U.S. rinses individual broiler carcasses with 400 mL of 1% buffered peptone water (BPW) for Salmonella incidence detection, while the European Union (EU) uses a 25 g composited neck skin sample from three carcasses. Therefore, the objectives of the study were to obtain carcasses from a commercial U.S. processing facility and compare the FSIS and EU sampling methods for Salmonella for each individual carcass and evaluate levels of E. coli. Two replications of 30 broiler carcasses each were obtained from a commercial plant just prior to the inside-outside carcass washer. The neck skin was aseptically removed and bagged separately from the carcass and transported to the laboratory for microbiological analysis. Neck skin (8.3 g) was aseptically weighed, added to 83 mL BPW and stomached for 30 sec. The corresponding carcass was bagged along with 400 mL BPW and shaken for 1 min and then 30 mL of the 400 mL of carcass rinsate were removed and added to an additional 30 mL of BPW. Aliquots were then removed from each sample and plated onto Petrifilm® for E. coli/coliform enumeration. Following this, the entire neck skin and carcass rinsates were incubated for 24 h at 37 C. After incubation, standard FSIS cultural procedures for Salmonella were used for both samples. In both repetitions, the E. coli counts were significantly greater (P<0.05) with the carcass rinse procedure (log 2.9 cfu/mL) compared to the stomached neck skin (log 1.9 cfu/mL). However, for Salmonella incidence there was no significant (P>0.05) difference between the two sampling methods. In rep 1, neck skin detected Salmonella from 17/30 carcasses, while the carcass rinse was 19/30. In Rep 2, the neck skin and carcass rinse both produced 13/30 Salmonella positive carcasses. Additional research is needed to sample a larger number of carcasses and at various sites in the processing plant to determine if one sampling method has an advantage over the other in regards to detecting Salmonella.