Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Salmonella spp. in Broilers Technological Processing and Determination of a Performance Objective (PO) for Frozen Chicken Breast

Abstract

The present study investigated the frequency, level of contamination and serotyping of Salmonella strains isolated from broiler flocks in different processing sites and the fulfillment of a Performance Objective (PO) in frozen chicken breasts, as a risk assessment to measure the efficacy of prevention and control programs applied to reduce the risk of Salmonella spp. in raw poultry meat that contribute to reach food safety and public health goals. From 1,800 samples of cloacal swabs, carcasses before and after immersion chilling and frozen breasts derived from 20 broiler flocks slaughtered at two processing plants located in the mid-west and southern regions of Brazil, 278 samples were positive for Salmonella spp. by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) automated BAX System (DUPONT QUALICOM, USA), and 118 were enumerated by miniaturized most probable number technique. 122 Salmonella spp. strains were serotyped at the National Reference Laboratory of Cholera and Enteric Diseases of Oswaldo Cruz Institute Foundation (FIOCRUZ), showing a dominance of Salmonella Minnesota in every processing steps of the slaughterhouse located in the Brazilian mid-west region. Only 1 lot failed to reach the expected result for the Performance Objective (PO), using a maximum of 10% positivity acceptance for Salmonella spp. in frozen chicken breasts. Qualitative and quantitative results combined may be considered an effective tool to evaluate the effect of prevention and control programs for Salmonella spp. on the safety of the final product.

Salmonella Serovars Isolated from Poultry Breeding Flocks under the Brazilian Official Control Programme Between 2016 and 2018

“…Many studies report that Salmonella control and prevention strategies in the poultry chain should cover the whole production chain, from farm to fork (Andino & Hanning, 2015;Rajan et al, 2016;Machado et al, 2020;). Sivaramalingam et al (2013) suggest that interventions at the breeder flock level would likely reduce transmission from breeder flocks to lower levels of the production chain and possibly also to the retail level.…”