A study was conducted to evaluate a high pressure spray (HPS) with water as an alternative to trimming to remove gastrointestinal contamination on poultry carcasses and improve microbiological quality. The study was conducted under commercial conditions in 5 slaughter plants with one plant presenting approximately 5% of carcasses with visible gastrointestinal contamination (VGC), and the others showing approximately 12% of VGC. In all 5 plants, carcasses were sampled from the slaughter line and separated into 6 groups corresponding to 3 different treatments: A) carcasses with VGC before and after trimming; B) carcasses with VGC before and after HPS; and C) carcasses with no VGC before and after HPS. At the end of Trial A and prior to Trials B and C, an HPS equipment was installed before the end of the slaughter line. The HPS equipment was operated with 10 kgf/cm² of pressure and 1.5 L of potable water per carcass. Carcasses were analyzed using a rinsing procedure, and the following microbiological parameters were evaluated: the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter, the abundance of Escherichia coli (EC), Enterobacteriaceae (EB), and the Total Viable Count (TVC). Salmonella was found in all plants at a prevalence ranging from 0.8% (plant 1) to 17.3% (plant 5), and the difference between plants was significant (P < 0.05%). The prevalence of Campylobacter ranged from 2.1 (plant 1) to 18.6% (plant 4) (P < 0.05%). The prevalence of Campylobacter was similar in plants 2, 3, and 5, and a significant difference (P < 0.05%) was observed compared to plants 1 and 4. In all plants, the EC, EB, and TVC counts did not show a significant difference (P > 0.05%) in any treatments. These results demonstrate that HPS with water is an alternative method for removing VGC and improving or maintaining the microbiological quality and safety of broiler carcasses.

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (aEPEC) in frozen chicken carcasses sold at stores in southern Brazil. Typical E. coli colonies were enumerated in 246 chicken carcasses, and the presence of stx1, stx2, eae genes was investigated in their rinse liquid and in E. coli strains isolated from those carcasses.Strains of E. coli were also investigated for the presence of bfp gene. A median of 0.6 cfu.g -1 (ranging from <0.1 to 242.7 cfu.g -1 ) of typical E. coli colonies was found in the carcasses. Shiga toxin-encoding genes (stx1 and stx2) were not detected, indicating that the chicken carcasses were negative for STEC. The intimin protein gene (eae) was detected in E.coli isolated from 4.88% of the carcasses; all tested strains were negative for the bfp gene and were classified as aEPEC. Twenty-two aEPEC strains were tested for resistance to ten antimicrobials and subjected to macrorestriction (PFGE). All the tested aEPEC strains were fully susceptible to cephalosporins, ciprofloxacin and colistin. Resistance to sulfonamide (65%), ampicillin (55%), tetracycline (50%) and gentamicin (45%) were the most frequent. The PFGE profile demonstrated a low level of similarity among the resistant strains, indicating that they were epidemiologically unrelated. The results indicate that aEPEC strains can contaminate chicken meat, and their association with strains implicated in human diarrhea needs to be further investigated.