Comparison of three methods for detecting Campylobacter spp. in chilled or frozen meat

There is a demand from the meat industry as well as from public health authorities for a simple and rapid detection method for thermophilic Campylobacter spp. from food. Hence, we compared different isolation procedures for their usefulness for this purpose. Bolton enrichment medium without blood, incubated statically in stomacher bags in microaerophilic atmosphere, detected more samples positive for thermophilic Campylobacter spp. than did Preston enrichment broth in bottles with small headspace and tight caps, incubated in aerobic atmosphere. Use of an automated antigen detection system to identify enrichment cultures positive for Campylobacter spp. was as sensitive as selective agars, and reduced the detection time by 24 h. Campylobacter spp. were recovered from 18.4% of the 461 samples tested. The prevalence was highest in refrigerated poultry meat (52% of the 80 samples tested) and poultry offal (41% of the 44 samples tested).