Investigation of Bacterial Contamination in Chicken Carcasses at an Abattoir in Khartoum State

Abstract

The study was conducted at a poultry slaughterhouse in Khartoum State, Sudan, to evaluate microbial contamination in poultry meat. A total of 600 swab samples were collected randomly from chicken carcasses slaughtered at modern poultry abattoir. The samples were taken from five Critical Control Points (CCPs), namely; after defeathering, after evisceration, after spray wash, after chilling and hands of workers. Total Viable Count (TVC) was carried for each sample besides isolation and identification of contaminating bacteria. With exception of the CCP after spray wash, the study revealed a statistically significant difference at P-value (p? 0.05) in the other four CCPs between the legs, backs and breast and reholding 1, reholding 2 and packing, correspondingly. The isolated bacteria were Escherichia coli, Salmonella species, Pseudomonas species, Shigella species and Staphylococcus aureus. The current results indicate that there was an increase in the level of total aerobic and coliform counts in swab samples taken from chicken carcasses and this is worrying due to their ability to cause diseases and the implementation of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) in poultry industry is extremely important, because it involves the constant monitoring of all slaughtering procedure.