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SUMMARYWe describe a community outbreak of campylobacter enteritis associated with the consumption of untreated milk, apparently contaminated by two cows with campylobacter mastitis. The outbreak occurred in two phases. Strains ofCampylobacter jejuniof the Penner serogroup complex 4, 13, 16, 50 and Preston biotype code 6100 were isolated from patients in both episodes and from the faeces of the cattle, milk filters, bulk milk and retail milk. Milk samples from two of 40 milking cows were found to containC. jejuni, and the wheys from these two cows had high titres of antibody toC. jejunidetected by ELISA techniques.

Campylobacters were sought in swabs taken from work surfaces, sinks and floors of four kitchens-i.e. hospital, university, cook-freeze and commercial, processing frozen or fresh chickens. Each kitchen was visited on four occasions. In the large commercial kitchen environmental contamination was found on each visit, whereas campylobacters were isolated on six of the twelve visits to the other kitchens. The hands of operatives were contaminated with campylobacters on only two of the 45 swabs taken during processing. Cleaning with detergent and hot water (or steam) and drying appears to be sufficient to remove the organism from the environment. Evidence of carriage of campylobacters by the birds was obtained on all 16 visits. In the three kitchens where only frozen birds were used the organism was isolated from 30% and 9.8% of swabs taken from the internal and external surfaces respectively, while 41% of giblets and 22.2% of thawed juices yielded campylobacters. The external surface of 30 (88%) of 34 fresh birds grew campylobacters.

SUMMARYIn this study we examined 730 faecal samples of offal (mainly liver), mince-meat and sausage meat collected from abattoirs and retail butchers' shops for campylobacters.Campylobacter jejuniorC. coliwere isolated from 30·6, 10·5 and 6% of sheep, cattle and pig offal samples respectively. Specimens collected from abattoirs were, in general, more often contaminated than material obtained from retail butchers' shops. Only 1·4% of minced meats and sausage meats contained campylobacters. Most isolates (89·5%) wereC. jejunibiotype 1 (Skirrow & Benjamin, 1980) of serotypes 1 and 2 (Penner & Hennessy, 1980). This study shows that animal offal is frequently contaminated withC. jejuniof biotypes and scrotypes commonly isolated from human beings with campylobacter enteritis.

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