Prevalence of Arcobacter and Campylobacter on broiler carcasses during processing

Broiler carcasses (n = 325) were sampled in a U.S. commercial poultry processing plant for the prevalence of Arcobacter and Campylobacter at three sites along the processing line: pre-scald, pre-chill and post-chill. Samples (75-125 broilers per site) were collected during five plant visits from August to October of 2004. Arcobacter was recovered from pre-scald carcasses more frequently (96.8%) than from pre-chill (61.3%) and post-chill carcasses (9.6%). Campylobacter was isolated from 92% of pre-scald carcasses, 100% of pre-chill carcasses, and 52% of post-chill carcasses. In total, Arcobacter was isolated from 55.1% (179 of 325), while Campylobacter was isolated from 78.5% (255 of 325) of the carcasses from the three collection sites. For Arcobacter identification, a species-specific multiplex PCR showed that A. butzleri was the most prevalent species (79.1%) followed by A. cryaerophilus 1B (18.6%). A. cryaerophilus 1A was found at low levels (2.3%). PCR identified the most common Campylobacter species as C. jejuni (87.6%) followed by C. coli (12.4%). Overall, significant contamination of broiler carcasses by Arcobacter was observed, although less than that found for Campylobacter. From pre-scald to post-chill, a far greater reduction in Arcobacter numbers was observed than for Campylobacter. Our results for Arcobacter, obtained from the same environment as the closely related pathogen Campylobacter, will aid in the development of control measures for this emerging pathogen.