Broiler chicken carcasses and their associated abattoirs as a source of enterotoxigenic <em>Clostridium perfringens</em>: Prevalence and critical steps for contamination

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens ranks among the three most frequent bacterial pathogens causing human foodborne diseases in Canada, and poultry meat products are identified as a source of infection for humans. The objective of the current study was to estimate the proportion of broiler chicken flocks, carcasses and various environmental samples from critical locations of the slaughter plant positive for the presence of C. perfringens enterotoxin encoding gene ( cpe ). From the 16 visits conducted, 25% of the 79 flocks sampled, 10% of the 379 carcasses sampled and 5% of the 217 environmental samples collected were found positive for cpe. The proportion of cpe -positive carcasses was statistically different between surveyed plants, with 17.0% for one abattoir and 2.2% for the other. For the most contaminated plant, cpe -positive carcasses were identified at each step of the processing line, with prevalence varying between 10.0% and 25.0%, whereas this prevalence varied between 0% and 25.0% for the environmental surfaces sampled. Based on the results obtained, enterotoxigenic C. perfringens strains could potentially represent a risk for the consumer.

Insights on toxin genotyping, virulence, antibiogram profiling, biofilm formation and efficacy of disinfectants on biofilms ofClostridium perfringensisolated from poultry, animals and humans

“…The frequency of cpe + C. perfringens type A recovered from chicken carcasses in the current study coincided with the findings of Gaucher et al . (2018) and Hu et al . (2018) which indicated a higher contamination from the intestinal contents during slaughtering processes or through contact with contaminated surfaces in slaughterhouses (Rouger et al .…”

“…2017), broiler chicken carcasses (Guran and Oksuztepe 2013, Gaucher et al . 2018; Hu et al . 2018) and diarrhoeic human cases (Yadav et al .…”

Salmonella Contamination of Broiler Chicken Carcasses at Critical Steps of the Slaughter Process and in the Environment of Two Slaughter Plants: Prevalence, Genetic Profiles, and Association with the Final Carcass Status

“…Environmental sampling. Environmental (E) samplings were carried out at seven critical sampling locations (CSLs) (23). CSLs were defined as follows: E1, the feather-plucking rubber fingers; E2, the conveyor belt between the live-receiving and the evisceration departments; E3, the eviscerating machine; E4, the floor surface in the evisceration department; E5, the conveyor belt before chilling; E6, the conveyor belt after chilling; and E7, a stainless steel equipment surface in contact with the meat product and located in the cut-up room (Fig.…”

“…Preparation of genomic DNA. A DNA extraction protocol using a 10% Chelex 100 (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) solution in water was applied (23). In brief, three to five colonies of each pure Salmonella isolate grown on blood agar plates were suspended in 1 mL of sterile water, vortexed, and centrifuged at 12,000 3 g for 3 min.…”

Tracing Clostridium perfringens strains along the chicken production chain from farm to slaughter by multilocus sequence typing

“…Many studies indicated that chicken products have high contamination rates of C. perfringens in the retail market (Miki et al, 2008;Wen & Mcclane, 2004), which may be caused by improper storage in the retail market, or the contamination from the environment in retail stores. At the same time, it has been reported that unreasonable treatment (such as slaughterhouses are not disinfected in time or slaughtering operations are not standardized) in the slaughtering process may also cause cross contamination of C. perfringens in meat products (Álvarez-Pérez et al, 2018;Gaucher et al, 2018;Li et al, 2019). Modern poultry slaughtering relies on highly automated processes and equipments, and preventing chicken carcasses from bacterial contamination is a constant challenge for processors who must comply with regulatory guidelines (Alzubeidi et al, 2018).…”