Prevalence of Campylobacter in chicken and chicken by-products retailed in Sapporo area, Hokkaido, Japan

The present work was carried out to study the prevalence of Campylobacter in fresh chicken meat and chicken by-products on retail level in Sapporo, Japan. Out of the 170 samples of chicken meat (breasts and thighs) and chicken by products (wings, livers, gizzards and hearts), 110 (64.7%) were contaminated with Campylobacter. Among the different products, chicken wings showed the highest contamination incidence (77.1%) followed by chicken thighs (70%), while chicken gizzards and hearts showed the lowest contamination incidence (45% and 40%, respectively). Of the 341 Campylobacter isolates, 278 (81.5%) were identified as Campylobacter jejuni and 63 (18.5%) isolates were identified as C coli. All of the 341 Campylobacter strains identified by the conventional culture methods were further confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which indicated that almost all (99.4%) of the tested strains were also positive by PCR. Screening of 195 selected Campylobacter isolates for determining their antimicrobial resistance indicated that most of the tested strains (73.3%) were resistant to three or more of antimicrobials examined. The study concluded that high proportion of chicken meat and chicken by-products marketed in Sapporo area are contaminated by Campylobacter, most of which are antimicrobial-resistant strains, with a possible risk from such microorganism especially from consumption of undercooked or post-cooking contaminated chicken products. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.