Escherichia coli and Enterobacteriaceae counts on poultry carcasses along the slaughterline: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundThe slaughtering process consists of a highly coordinated system of different operations and is of critical importance for meat hygiene. The evaluation of the impact of different stages on bacterial counts is useful to monitor carcass contamination and to improve the hygiene of different stages. Escherichia coli and Enterobacteriaceae are considered an interesting target for microbiological analysis.ObjectivesThe aim of this review was to summarize literature data about the influence of slaughter stage on E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae counts along the poultry slaughterline.ResultsSystematic review of the available literature and the meta-analysis of the data collected revealed that scalding resulted in a significant reduction of E. coli counts. Washing and chilling were able to decrease E. coli counts in a statistically significant way; however, the observed reductions were of no practical importance. Enterobacteriaceae were reduced only by defeathering and washing but no practical significance was observed. None of the other stages of the slaughterline resulted in significant changes of indicator bacteria counts.Conclusions and implicationsInformation provided would be useful to suggest suitable ways for the implementation of processes hygiene in poultry slaughterhouses in particular GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) and HACCP through the identification of suitable CCPs.     

Isolation of salmonellae using two forms of Rappaport-Vassiliadis medium and brilliant green agar

The relative efficiencies of Rappaport-Vassiliadis medium containing tryptone (RV medium) or soya peptone (RV-soya) were compared for the isolation of salmonellae from 518 naturally contaminated chicken livers. RV-soya (299 of 518) gave slightly better recoveries than the standard RV medium (295 of 518) although the difference was not statistically significant (P> 0.05). 60% of the samples which were found to be positive after 24 h enrichment in RV-soya were also positive after just 6 h incubation. It was shown that the use of 14 cm plates of brilliant green agar gave better Salmonella recoveries than did 9 cm plates of the same medium. However, when sulphamandelate supplement was incorporated into the medium, recoveries were further increased. We conclude that RV-soya is an effective alternative to the standard RV medium for the isolation of salmonellae from poultry and would recommend a protocol of pre-enrichment in buffered peptone water, enrichment in RV-soya for 24 h at 43°C and plating on brilliant green agar containing sulphamandelate supplement.     

Evaluation of basidiomycetous fungi for pretreatment of contaminated soil

BACKGROUND: For most dioxin‐contaminated sawmill soils, combustion is recommended. However, the process may be inefficient if the soil has a high organic matter content. The use of saprotrophic basidiomycetous fungi is an alternative for pretreatment of this kind of soil. A total of 147 fungi were evaluated for their ability to grow in sawmill soil. From this screening, the best soil colonizing fungi were selected to study their enzyme activities and degradation of soil organic matter. Pine (Pinus sylvestris) bark was used as a co‐substrate to propagate the fungi into the soil. The activities of manganese peroxidase (MnP), laccase, endo‐1,4‐β‐glucanase, endo‐1,4‐β‐xylanase, and endo‐1,4‐β‐mannanase were analysed from the inocula and fungal treated soil. RESULTS: The screening revealed that 56 out of 147 fungi were able to grow in non‐sterile soil, and most of them were litter‐decomposing fungi (LDF). In pine bark cultures, the highest enzyme activities were observed with Phanerochaete velutina, which produced 5 U g^?1 of MnP. The activity of endo‐1,4‐β‐glucanase was generally higher than that of other hydrolytic enzymes. The highest carbon loss from soil with a high organic matter content was achieved by P. velutina (3.4%) and Stropharia rugosoannulata (2.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Many LDF, and in addition the white‐rot fungus P. velutina, are potential degraders of soil organic matter since they showed good growth and respiratory activity. Pine bark was a suitable lignocellulosic co‐substrate and a good promoter of MnP activity. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge,wine vinasse and poultry manure for bio-hydrogen production

The influence of the addition of poultry manure on the thermophilic acid co-fermentation of sewage sludge and wine vinasse was studied. For this, discontinuous tests were carried out to determine the potential for hydrogen production (BHP tests) of 50:50 mixtures of sludge and wine vinasse with different amounts of poultry manure (10  g/L, 20  g/L and 30  g/L). The hydrogen production performance was determined under the tested conditions. The experimental results revealed performance values of TCOD and SCOD, TS and VS, similar in all tests, with removal efficiencies lower than 25%. Likewise, an increase in the production of volatile fatty acids was observed. Regarding the yield, the best results were obtained for the mixture with 10 g/L of poultry manure (with a C/N ratio: 27). Thus, the H₂ production and the yield expressed as mL H₂/gVS_added was 18.20% and 27.57% higher in the test with 10  g/L of poultry manure compared to the test with 20  g/L. Furthermore, from 20 g/L of poultry manure, the mixtures showed poorer purification behavior and performance.     

胶体金免疫层析法快速诊断禽流感

建立了一种简便、快速、准确检测动物禽流感病毒(AIV)的胶体金免疫层析法(GICA).具体内容包括制备胶体金标记抗AIV单克隆抗体和羊抗AIV抗体,结合垫和样品垫的处理,组装免疫层析试纸条.检测动物AIV,进行敏感性和特异性评定.结果表明:测试条灵敏度可达10 ng/ml.与进口禽流感胶体金免疫层析试剂条比较,符合率达100%.本方法具有特异性强、灵敏度高、简便快速的特点,可用于禽流感的早期诊断.     

An artificial neural network model for the effects of chicken manure on ground water

In the areas where broiler industry is located, poultry manure from chicken farms could be a major source of ground water pollution, and this may have extensive effects particularly when the farms use nearby ground water as their fresh water supply. Therefore the prediction the extent of this pollution, either from rigorous mathematical diffusion modeling or from the perspective of experimental data evaluation bears importance. In this work, we have investigated modeling of the effects of chicken manure on ground water by artificial neural networks. An ANN model was developed to predict the total coliform in the ground water well in poultry farms. The back-propagation algorithm was employed for training and testing the network, and the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was utilized for optimization. The MATLAB 7.0 environment with Neural Network Toolbox was used for coding. Given the associated input parameters such as the number of chickens, type of manure pool management and depth of well, the model estimates the possible amount of total coliform in the wells to a satisfactory degree. Therefore it is expected to be of help in future for estimating the ground water pollution resulting from chicken farms.     

Microwave-enhanced hydrolysis of poultry feather to produce amino acid

Poultry feather was hydrolyzed at relatively mild high temperature ranging from 433 to 473 K and autogenous pressure by intensification of microwave heating. The hydrolysate mainly contains arginine, alanine, threonine, glycine, praline, serine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, cystine and tyrosine, which corresponds with hydrochloric acid catalytic hydrolysis. Based on the orthogonal experimental result, the total yield of amino acid attains about 54.72% with feather containing about 71.83% keratin at optimum reaction condition of temperature 473 K, time 20 min and weight ratio of water/feather 37.5. The high yield of amino acid and high efficiency of hydrolysis indicate that the microwave has better intensification on hydrolysis comparing with traditional strong acid catalytic or sub-critical hydrolysis. The apparent activation energies (E_a) are 85.12 and 63.00 kJ/mol as to the hydrolysis of feather and the degradation of produced amino acid with consecutive pseudo-first-order reaction kinetic model, and the great decrease of the values comparing with non-microwave heating should be the reason of the enhanced effect of microwave.     

Simultaneous determination of melamine and cyanuric acid in dairy products by mixed-mode solid phase extraction and GC–MS

This report described a method for simultaneous determination of cyanuric acid (CYA) and melamine (MEL) in dairy products. The samples were extracted by a mixture of acetonitrile/water and cleaned by graphite carbon/strong cation exchange (CARB/SCX) mixed-mode solid phase extraction column. The CYA and MEL were derivatized with bis(trimethylsily1)trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) containing 1% Trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS), and quantified with the internal standards of ¹⁵N₃-cyanuric acid and ¹³C₃-melamine by GC–MS. The results indicated that CARB/SCX mixed solid phase extraction column could be used for sample pretreatment. The fortification recoveries were 80.8–101.5%, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were 3.6–7.9%. The detection limits of CYA and MEL were 0.025 mg kg⁻¹ and 0.01 mg kg⁻¹ respectively.     

Ozone based food preservation: a promising green technology for enhanced food safety

Extending shelf life of food products is a major concern of the producers, and the food industry requires ‘greener’ alternatives to the current technologies. Ozone-based food preservation may suit this niche. Ozone is an attractive alternative preservative that food industry needs due to its properties such as quick decomposition and little residual effect during food preservation. Ozone is the strongest molecule available for the disinfection of water and is second only to elemental fluorine in oxidizing power. Ozone is being used in the food industry in various applications such as decontamination of water and equipment surfaces. Several researchers have focused on the application of ozone to inactivate microorganisms on fresh produce, like fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, and eggs, and dry produce, such as cereals, pulses, and spices. This review comprehensively analyses appropriate ozone concentrations and exposure times and discusses various factors that affect the quality and safety of food products during ozonation.