ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF A DECONTAMINATION PROCESS OF BROILER CARCASSES ON THERMOTOLERANT CAMPYLOBACTERS

In the last few years, human enteropathogenicity of thermotolerant Campylobacters has been demonstrated. It is now recognized as a leading foodborne pathogen. Poultry is one of the major sources of these bacteria because of its asymptomatic carriage by living animals. The operations in processing plants (immersion scalding, defeathering, evisceration) don't succeed in eliminating Campylobacters and involve an external infection of carcasses. The poultry industry must reduce strongly or eliminate completely Campylobacters from poultry meat, AVGARD(TM) process consists in dipping post-eviscerated chicken carcasses during 15 s in a water bath at room temperature with 10% trisodium phosphate (TSP). In a comparative study involving 17 treated and 17 control carcasses, the effect of treatment on the reduction of thermotolerant Campylobacters attached to the carcasses, was measured in carcasses rinses using the most probable number technique. A reduction of thermophilic Campylobacters by 1.3 log was observed in TSP treated carcasses rinses. The effect of TSP may be due to the high pH, to a direct lethal effect, to an inhibition of the cell adhesion on chicken skin, to a bacterial cell autolysis.