EFFICIENCY OF DIFFERENT PROTOCOLS FOR Campylobacter jejuni ISOLATION FROM POULTRY MEAT

Abstract Campylobacter jejuni is the main cause of acute bacterial gastroenteritis, and poultry meat is an important agent vehicle. However, the conventional methods for Campylobacter isolation are often not effective and may lead to erroneous results. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate different methods to C. jejuni detection in poultry products. Ground chicken experimentally contaminated with three different dilutions of the microorganism was analyzed with different protocols to C. jejuni isolation: Seeding directly in agars mCCDA, Columbia and blood agar, and after pre-enrichment in Bolton or Brucella broth. The Campylobacter characteristic colonies were identified and compared in order to assess which method was the most effective. The only protocols in which it was possible to recover the microorganism from all the tests were those using the mCCDA agar associated with the Bolton broth or the Brucella broth. These were also the only protocols that allowed the recovery of C. jejuni 24 hours after the experimental contamination with inoculum equal to 100 CFU/25 g. However, the mCCDA agar without the use of pre-enrichment presented an unsatisfactory performance, lower than the other protocols. It is concluded that mCCDA agar with Brucella broth or with Bolton broth pre-enrichment was more efficient for the C. jejuni isolation than the other protocols.