Test Too many germs in poultry meat

Potential pathogens on every second poultry meat sample

03/11/2015

For poultry meat, there is still a problem with germ contamination, according to one of the key messages of the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) in the report on Representative Zoonotic Monitoring 2013 published yesterday. „High carcass contamination rates of about 50 percent with potentially pathogenic germs make it clear that poultry slaughter hygiene needs to be comprehensively improved“, reports the BVL.

According to the BVL, around half of all samples of slaughtered broiler chickens from 2013 were contaminated with potentially pathogenic germs, many of them multidrug-resistant bacteria that can not be treated with the usual antibiotics. The BVL pleaded for major changes in slaughter hygiene in view of the persistently high level of microbial contamination in poultry meat. Significant improvements in hygiene practices are urgently needed.

As part of the zoonosis monitoring 2013, according to the BVL „a total of 5,669 samples were taken at all levels of the food chain and examined by the provincial investigation bodies for the occurrence of the most important food-borne pathogens.“ 3,515 bacterial isolates were characterized in the National Reference Laboratories at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and tested for their resistance to selected antibiotics.

Significant increase in exposure to Campylobacter
For example, the observed increase in the rate of contamination of broiler carcasses with Campylobacter bacteria was of particular concern. In 2011, the number of contaminated samples in the zoonotic monitoring program was just under 41 percent of broiler chickens. In 2013, the proportion of contaminated samples was just over 52 percent. „In view of the high number of human illnesses due to a Campylobacter infection, there is a need for action from the point of view of consumer health protection“, so the message of the BVL. Symptoms of Campylobacter include symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches, joint pain, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. In immunocompromised patients, a chronic course threatens and the infection can at worst take life-threatening proportions.

Multiple MRSA germs detected
In addition, approximately half of broiler carcasses (49.0 percent) and about 20 percent of fresh chicken meat samples were found to contain MRSA. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is resistant to various antibiotics and is responsible, for example, for a variety of annual hospital infections. However, on the poultry meat mainly so-called „Livestock-associated“ MRSA strains detected, reports the BVL. They do not assume a transference to humans. In addition, according to current scientific knowledge, there is no risk of colonization or infection by the consumption or handling of foods that are contaminated with MRSA. Nevertheless, the extremely high burden of poultry meat over other meats remains questionable. For example, according to the BVL, MRSA can only be detected in about five percent of cattle carcasses.

More resistant pathogens in poultry than beef
According to the BVL, the results of antibiotic resistance examinations in the context of zoonosis monitoring have confirmed and demonstrated the findings from previous years, „that isolates from the food chain broilers generally have higher resistance rates than isolates from the food chain Mastrind.“ For example, around half of Campylobacter jejuni isolates from the beef chain are resistant to all substances, while the average proportion of resistant isolates in poultry meat reached 66 percent. Overall, however, a decline in the number of drug resistances was observed in comparison to previous years in the Zoonoses Monitoring 2013, as the pleasing aspect in the BVL statement. (Fp)