IDENTIFICATION OF PSEUDOMONADS FROM FRESH AND CHILL-STORED CHICKEN CARCASSES

Results of carbon source assimilation tests (17 carbon compounds) led to 88% of pseudomonads from cold-stored chicken carcasses being assign ed to one of 17 groups. Of these groups, 13 had combinations of proper ties identical to, or with readily recognizable degrees of similarity to those of published species/biovars. Two of the four groups having c arbon assimilation patterns dissimilar to any known species had cellul ar fatty acid composition corresponding to Pseudomonas fluorescens, an d two to Pseudomonas lundensis or Pseudomonas fragi. The P. fluorescen s biovars all had higher amounts of 16:1 cis 9 (21-37%) and 18:1 cis 1 1 (10-19%), than of 17:0 cycle (1-17%) and 19:0 cycle (0-1%). In contr ast, for P. lundensis and P. fragi, the relative amounts of these unsa turated acids and cyclopropane acids were reversed. Both the carbon so urce assimilation tests and the cellular fatty acid composition led to the conclusion that none of the species were dominant, although the P . fluorescens biovars constituted about 50% of the isolated pseudomona ds. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.