RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AEROBIC-BACTERIA, SALMONELLAE, AND CAMPYLOBACTERON BROILER CARCASSES

Broiler carcasses were removed from commercial processing lines immedi ately after defeathering, before chilling, and after chilling to deter mine whether any relationship exists between aerobic bacteria and the human enteropathogens salmonellae and Campylobacter. In two experiment s, a whole carcass rinse procedure was used to sample 30 carcasses aft er defeathering, 90 carcasses before chilling, and 90 carcasses after chilling, for a total of 210 different carcasses. Aerobic bacteria and Campylobacter spp. were enumerated and the incidence of salmonellae w as determined. Salmonellae and Campylobacter incidences were 20 and 94 %, respectively, for all carcasses sampled. After picking, neither sal monellae-positive nor Campylobacter-positive carcasses had mean aerobi c most probable number (MPN) values that were different from carcasses negative for those organisms. Immediately before chilling, aerobic an d Campylobacter counts were 7.12 and 5.33 log(10) cfu per carcass, res pectively. Immersion chilling reduced aerobic counts by approximately 1.8 log and Campylobacter by 1.5 log, with no change in salmonellae-po sitive carcasses. There was no difference in aerobic or Campylobacter counts between carcasses that were positive or negative for salmonella e at any of the sampling locations, nor was any correlation found betw een levels of aerobic organisms and Campylobacter, Carcasses with aero bic counts above the mean or more than one standard deviation above th e mean also failed to show any correlation. Discriminant analysis indi cated error rates as high as 50% when numbers of aerobic bacteria were used to predict incidence of salmonellae or Campylobacter on individu al carcasses. Aerobic bacteria are not suitable as index organisms for salmonellae or Campylobacter on broiler carcasses.