Prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter on broiler chickens from farm to slaughter and efficiency of methods to remove visible fecal contamination.

A study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter from farm to slaughter. The efficiency of trimming and water spray (490 to 588 kPa pressure) on the removal of visible fecal contamination from broiler carcasses before chilling was also investigated. Drag swabs were used to sample litter from the farm houses. Samples of ceca and carcasses without and with visible fecal contamination before and after trimming or spray washing of fecal contamination were taken during slaughter of the flocks previously visited at the farms. There was a low prevalence of Salmonella on the litter from the farms (5%) and cecum and carcasses (0%). However, Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli were present in farms' litter (100 and 58.8%, respectively), cecum samples (100 and 70.6%, respectively), and carcasses with (58.8 and 11.6%, respectively) and without (17.6 and 9.8%, respectively) visible fecal contamination. There was high prevalence of C. jejuni but at low counts and low prevalenc...