CHICKEN MEAT HANDLING PRACTICES, AND THE LOAD OF SALMONELLA AND CAMPYLOBACTER CONTAMINATION IN HARAR CITY, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Salmonella and Campylobacter continue to be major foodborne pathogens and contaminated raw chicken meat is considered to be an important source of these bacteria. To address this issue an experimental study was conducted from June to December 2023 to estimate the contamination burden of Salmonella and Campylobacter in chicken meat and the processing equipment slaughtered at household level and assessing the hygienic practice in Harar City. A total of 120 households were randomly selected from the total household census of Harar city regardless of their religious, income and ethnicity. The households were provided with live chicken, and they used to slaughter according to the regular practice they follow. A total of 480 samples were collected which include: chicken neck flap, cloaca and surface swabs from food processing equipment before and after slaughtering chicken at home. For the microbiological assessment, discarding four samples and the remaining were exposed to serial dilution to determine Salmonella and Campylobacter load. Out of the total 476 samples examined, 78(16.4 %) were positive for Campylobacter and 16(3.4%) positive for Salmonella. Campylobacter was recorded from 17(14.3%), 40(33.6%), 1(0.8%), and 20 (16.8%) of chicken neck flap, cloaca swab, food processing equipment surface before processing and food processing equipment surface after processing respectively whereas the record of Salmonella was detected in 9 (7.6%), 3(2.5%), 2(1.7%) and 2(1.7%) of the respective samples. A high isolation rate of Campylobacter was observed in cloaca (33.6%) and a high isolation rate of Salmonella was observed on neck flap (7.66%). The load of Campylobacter on different samples showed that in log10 cfu/ml 5.36, 6.62 and 3.53 was detected on neck flap, cloaca and FSA respectively. Whereas the respective load of Salmonella on samples showed that; 2.68 and 3.74 was detected on neck flap and cloaca swab samples. Observational assessment of the chicken meat handling practices in household identified some wrong practices. The households’ practices of washing kitchen utensils and chicken meat were poor, and the isolation rate and load of Salmonella and Campylobacter were high. Based on these results, recommendations related to public awareness on appropriate handling of raw chicken meat; like cleaning utensils properly before and after use to reduce cross-contamination were forwarded