ARCOBACTER CONTAMINATION IN TWO POULTRY PROCESSING PLANTS IN THAILAND

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the occurrence and genetic profiles of Arcobacter spp. from various slaughtering stages and to investigate the potential source of carcass contamination. A total of 388 samples consisting of chicken related samples (n=152) and environmental samples (n=236) were collected from two poultry processing plants (Plant A and Plant B) in Thailand. Arcobacter was isolated using the membrane filtration technique and identified to species level using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction method. Isolates were further genotyped by Repetitive element sequence based PCR (rep-PCR) using GTG5 primers. The occurrence of Arcobacter in plant A was 67% and 74% on the first and the second sampling days, respectively. In plant B, the occurrence was 53% in both sampling days. No significant difference between the occurrence of Arcobacter in both plants was observed. Arcobacter butzleri was the predominant species observed in this study. Although cluster analysis of rep-PCR patterns revealed the high degree of genetic diversity of Arcobacter in Thai poultry processing plant, several Arcobacter genotypes present in the slaughterhouse environment were detected in chickens. This finding was likely due to the cross-contamination between slaughterhouse environment and chicken products along the processing line. Interestingly, even though the two sampling days were several weeks apart, some of Arcobacter isolates from the second sampling day had similar rep-PCR patterns with the isolates from the first sampling day. This finding indicated that some Arcobacter genotypes may be able to persist and circulate in the slaughterhouse environment. Since the exact route of poultry carcass contamination still remains unclear, further studies are required to investigate the source of Arcobacter contamination in order to effectively reduce the occurrence of this emerging foodborne pathogen in chicken carcasses.