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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Microbial and Chemical Food Safety » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #300839
Title: Chlorine inactivation of Salmonella Kentucky isolated from chicken carcasses: Evaluation of strain variation

Author
item MOHAMED, T. - University Of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES)
item PARVEEN, SALINA - University Of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES)
item LUDWIG, JAQUELINE - Former ARS Employee
item Oscar, Thomas

Submitted to: Journal of Food Protection
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/12/2014
Publication Date: 2/2/2015
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/61011
Citation: Mohamed, T.M., Parveen, S., Ludwig, J., Oscar, T.P. 2015. Chlorine inactivation of Salmonella Kentucky isolated from chicken carcasses: Evaluation of strain variation . Journal of Food Protection. 78(2):414-418.

Interpretive Summary: Use of antibiotics in live poultry that harbor human pathogens could induce expression of defense mechanisms in the pathogen that make them more resistant to disinfectants, such as chlorine, that are applied later during poultry processing. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to test the hypothesis that Salmonella Kentucky that are resistant to antibiotics are more resistant to chlorine than Salmonella Kentucky that are not resistant to antibiotics. Results of this study indicated that the ability of chlorine to kill Salmonella in chilled water was the same for non-resistant and antibiotic resistant strains of Salmonella Kentucky. Thus, it does not appear that on-farm use of antibiotics would have the unintended consequence of increasing resistance of Salmonella to chlorine applied during poultry processing.

Technical Abstract: The inactivation behavior of antibiotic resistant and non-resistant Salmonella Kentucky recovered from pre- and post-chill whole broiler carcasses in a large poultry plant was investigated by the exposure to 30 ppm chlorine for selected time intervals. The antibiotic resistance profiles were non-resistant, resistant to Tetracycline (T), Tetracycline-Ampicillin-Amoxicillin-Cefoxitin-Ceftiofur-Streptomycin (T-A-Am-C-Ce-St) and Tetracycline-Ampicillin-Amoxicillin-Cefoxitin-Ceftiofur (TAAmCCe). The independent variables were chill step and antibiotic resistance, and the dependent variables were the time for the first log reduction, and the shape parameter. There was a significant (P less than 0.01) effect of resistance on the time (minutes) for the first log reduction. There was no significant effect (P greater than 0.05) of chilling on the time for the first log reduction. However, an effect (P less than 0.01) was observed between pre-chill and post-chill within the non-resistant isolates. An effect (P less than 0.05) of antibiotic resistance on the shape parameter was observed but no effect (P greater than 0.05) of chilling on the shape parameter was observed. The results indicate that chilling had no effect on the inactivation of S. Kentucky at 30 ppm chlorine. Thus, antibiotic resistance does not provide resistant to S. Kentucky against chlorine in the chilled water.