Salmonella is a foodborne pathogen commonly associated with poultry products. The aims of this work were to 1) estimate the impact of critical steps of the slaughter process on Salmonella detection from broiler chicken carcasses in two commercial poultry slaughter plants in Quebec, Canada, 2) investigate the presence of the pathogen in the slaughter plant environment, 3) describe, using a high resolution melting (HRM) approach, the HRM Salmonella profiles and serotypes present on carcasses and in the slaughter plant environment and 4) evaluate if the HRM flock status after chilling could be predicted by the flock status at previous steps of the slaughter process, or by the status of previous flocks, or by the status of the processing environment, for a same HRM profile. Eight visits were conducted in each slaughter plant over a 6-month period. A total of 379 carcass rinsates from 79 flocks were collected at 5 critical steps of the slaughter process. Environmental samples were also collected from seven critical sites in each slaughter plant. The bleeding step was the most contaminated with >92% of positive carcasses. A decrease of the contamination along the slaughtering process was noted, with carcasses sampled after dry-air chilling showing ≤2.5% Salmonella prevalence. The most frequently isolated serotypes were S. Heidelberg, S. Kentucky and S. Schwarzengrund. The detection of the S. Heidelberg 1-1-1 HRM profile on carcasses after chilling was significantly associated with its detection at previous steps of the slaughter process and in previously slaughtered flocks during a same sampling day. Results highlight the importance of the chilling step in the control of Salmonella on broiler chicken carcasses and the need to further describe and compare the competitive advantage of Salmonella serotypes to survive processing. The current study also illustrates the usefulness of HRM typing in investigating Salmonella contamination along the slaughter process.
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