Prevalence of Salmonella enterica on poultry processing equipment after completion of sanitization procedures

Salmonella is a poultry-borne pathogen that causes illness throughout the world. Consequently, it is critical to control Salmonella during the process of converting broilers to poultry meat. Sanitization of a poultry processing facility, including processing equipment, is a crucial control measure that is utilized by poultry integrators. However, prevalence of Salmonella on equipment after sanitization and its potential risk to food safety has not been evaluated thoroughly. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the persistence of Salmonella on poultry processing equipment before and following cleaning and sanitization procedure. A total of 15 locations within 6 commercial processing plants were sampled at 3 time points: (A) after processing; (B) after cleaning; and (C) after sanitization, on 3 separate visits for a total of 135 samples per plant. Salmonella-positive isolates were recovered from samples using the United States Department of Agriculture MLG 4.09 conventional method. Presumptive Salmonella colonies were subjected to biochemical tests for confirmation. Salmonella isolates recovered after sanitization were serotyped and tested for the presence of specific virulence genes. A completely randomized design with a 6 × 3 × 15 factorial arrangement was utilized to analyze the results for Salmonella prevalence between processing plants. Means were separated using Fishers protected least significant difference when P ≤ 0.05. For Salmonella prevalence between processing plants, differences (P < 0.0001) were observed in the 6 plants tested where the maximum and minimum prevalence was 29.6 and 7.4%, respectively. As expected, there was a difference (P < 0.0001) in the recovery of Salmonella because of sampling time. Salmonella prevalence at time A (36%) was significantly higher, whereas there was no difference between time B (12%) and C (9%). There was a location effect (P < 0.0001) for the prevalence of Salmonella with the head puller, picker, cropper, and scalder having a significantly higher prevalence when compared with several other locations. At sampling time C, a trend toward a difference (P = 0.0899) was observed for Salmonella prevalence between the 6 plants, whereas significant differences were observed because of location (P = 0.0031). Five prominent Salmonella enterica serovars were identified, including Kentucky, Schwarzengrund, Enteritidis, Liverpool, and Typhimurium with S. Kentucky being the most prevalent. PCR analysis of 8 Salmonella virulence genes showed that the invA, sipB, spiA, sseC, and fimA were detected in all isolates, whereas genes carried on plasmids and/or fimbriae varied remarkably among all isolates. This study established Salmonella prevalence and persistence in poultry processing facilities after antimicrobial application through sanitization procedures which could result in contamination of poultry carcasses and food safety risks because of poultry meat.