Occurrence and Survival of Campylobacter jejuni in Milk and Turkey

Abstract

An enrichment procedure was used to determine the presence of Campylobacter jejuni in milk and ground turkey. This procedure consisted of subculturing a sample in antibiotic-supplemented brucella broth incubated at 37 deg C for 24 h, transferring to fresh broth, incubating microaerophilically at 42 deg C for 8 h and plating on a selective agar medium. C. jejuni was suspected in 9 of 50 samples of raw milk, but was not confirmed. The organism was not recovered from rectal swabs of cows. Storage at 4, 37 and 42 deg C of whole milk and ground turkey inoculated with C. jejuni resulted in decreases in C. jejuni counts in milk at 4 and 42 deg C, and increases in counts in ground turkey at 37 and 42 deg C. No survivors were detected when suspensions of the organism were exposed to chlorine at 10 p.p.m. for 30 s or to 3 common commercial sanitizers used according to manufacturers' specifications.