Adhesion ofStaphylococcus aureus: Its importance in poultry processing

Abstract

Strains of Staphylococcus aureus can become endemic within poultry processing plants and increase the contamination of the poultry carcasses by up to one thousand fold, leading to their rejection for use in further processed products. The main contamination occurs on the rubber fingers of the defeathering machinery, where the endemic strains, which grow in clumps and are eight times more resistant to hypochlorite than nonendemic strains, resist cleaning and disinfection by producing a glucosamine-rich extracellular polymer, which has been characterised by electron microscopy and chemical tests. Use of plasmid profiling has shown that the endemic, polymer-producing strains are present at about 4% of the S. aureus population on the live birds but form the majority of the strains isolated from the exit of the first plucker and, due to their extremely adhesive nature, contaminate the carcasses as they pass through the pluckers so that these strains predominate in the S. áureus flora of the final product.

Molecular Diversity and Characterization of Tetracycline-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from a Poultry Processing Plant

“…After coagulase-negative Staphylococcus spp. (28), Staphylococcus aureus is the most widespread staphylococcus that can survive, colonize, and persist at various processing stages in commercial PPPs due to its expression of various key properties, including adhesion (7,27) and chlorine resistance (6). In addition, S. aureus associated with poultry processing are also notorious as reservoir organisms of multiple antibiotic resistance traits (5,16,25,31).…”

Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcal Enterotoxin A in Breaded Chicken Products: Detection and Behavior during the Cooking Process

“…In the United Kingdom, for example, 53% of the staphylococcal food poisoning cases reported between 1969 and 1990 were due to meat products and meat-based dishes, and 22% of the cases were due to poultry and poultry-based meals (27,39). While staphylococci commonly occur on the skin and nasopharynx of healthy poultry (30), it is primarily S. aureus which can survive, colonize, and persist at various processing stages in commercial poultry processing plants due to the expression of various key properties, including adhesion (8,29) and chlorine resistance (10,21). In a typical processing operation, after slaughtering and defeathering, fresh chicken carcasses are eviscerated and washed.…”