Prevalence of Campylobacteria in the Finnish Broiler Chicken Chain from the Producer to the Consumer

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Abstract
The prevalence of Campylobacter jejuni is 1.7 % (9/600) in the faeces of 4–5 week broiler chickens in Finland and 24 % (117/490) in the caeci of broiler chickens at slaughter. All waste waters at a processing plant, except water in a chlorinated (25 ppm) chilling tank, contained campylobacteria when a Campylobacter positive flock was slaughtered. Caeci contained mean logio 7.2 CFU campylobacteria/g. After chilling in a chlorinated ice–water tank there were still mean log10 4.5 CFU campylobacteria/carcass. Campylobacteria were detected from 7.0% (14/199) of deep–frozen broiler chicken carcasses at the market level. The concentration of C jejuni in naturally contaminated deep–frozen broiler chicken carcasses decreased by 2 log10 units in 4 weeks. All prevalence figures were lower than in other developed countries outside Scandinavia. In Finland one of the reasons for low prevalence may be the extensive use of Nurmi cultures in Salmonella prevention programs.