Health

Prevalence of Arcobacter spp. in Mechanically Deboned Turkey

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Abstract

In the winter survey, Arcobacter spp. was isolated from 92% of the mechanically deboned turkey (MDT) samples with 80% of the samples positive for A. butzleri. The summer survey had 83% of the MDT samples positive for Arcobacter spp. The high rate of positives from the two surveys, clearly indicates that Arcobacter spp. is prevalent in MDT. This may be cause for concern, especially if food testing laboratories are relying on the traditional isolation methods for Campylobacter from meat. Some of the samples could be misinterpretedCampylobacter for Arcobacter and Arcobacter for Campylobacter. This survey uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect the presence of Arcobacter spp. in the enriched samples, thus bypassing the typical plating and visual identification. Arcobacter butzleri species-specific probes were used to identify the A. butzleri positive samples.

Keywords: ASL R1415

How to Cite:

Manke, T. R., Wesley, I. V. & Dickson, J. S., (1997) “Prevalence of Arcobacter spp. in Mechanically Deboned Turkey”, Iowa State University Animal Industry Report 1(1).