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Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni is the most common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in many countries and broiler and its by-products are the main source of human disease. Although Brazil is the world's 1^st largest chicken exporter, a little information is available about the prevalence of Campylobacter in chicken production chain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the storage temperature in the prevalence of Campylobacter on chicken meat stored for seven days at 4°C and for twenty-eight days at -20°C. The effect of the selective enrichment on the detection of Campylobacter was also evaluated. Thirty fresh chicken meat samples were analyzed and 93.3% was contaminated with termotolerant Campylobacter spp. with average counting of 3.08 Log₁₀ CFU/g on the direct plating. After refrigeration, 53.3% of the analyzed samples tested positive for Campylobacter and the average counting was 1.19 Log₁₀ CFU/g. Of samples stored at -20°C, 36.6% tested positive with average counting of 0.75 Log₁₀ CFU/g. After enrichment, C. jejuni was detected in 50%, 36.7% and 33.3% of the fresh, refrigerated and frozen meat samples analyzed, respectively. After selective enrichment, there was no difference between the fresh or low temperature storage, showing that microorganismcan survive at the tested storage conditions.