Occurrence of Listeria Species in Broilers Pre- and Post-Chilling in Chlorinated Water at Two Slaughterhouses

Abstract

Loncarevic, S., W. Tham and M.-L. Danielsson-Tham: Occurrence of Listeria species in broilers pre- and post-chilling in chlorinated water at two slaughterhouses. Acta vet. scand. 1994, 35, 149-154.–Altogether 323 pooled samples of neck skins from 1615 broilers from 2 processing plants (A and B) were examined for the presence of Listeria species. The broilers were sampled pre-chilling–after leaving the final rinser but before entering the chiller with chlorinated water–and post-chilling–immediately upon leaving the chiller. Free available chlorine in the chilling water varied from 2 to 15 ppm in plant A and was about 10 ppm in plant B. Listeria monocytogenes was only isolated from broilers in plant A sampled post-chilling (58% of 62 samples). L. innocua was isolated from 19% and 39% of broilers sampled pre-chilling in plants A and B, respectively. Post-chilling, L. innocua was isolated from 3% and 6% of samples from plants A and B, respectively.