Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Aug 31, 2011
Sampling turns up C diff in grocery store chicken
A study of Clostridium difficile in retail chicken found the pathogen in 3% to 12.5% of samples, depending on the cultivation procedure used, according to a study by US Department of Agriculture and Texas A&M researchers in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. In July 2010 they cultivated 32 meat samples from packages they collected from five grocery stores in Bryan and College Station, Tex.
Testing included in-house store brands and nationally known brands. After culturing the samples they used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing to characterize toxin genes, and they tested each C diff isolate they found for susceptibility to 11 antimicrobial agents.
They used pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to compare the genotypes of different isolates. Seven of the 32 meat samples tested positive, and the percent of positive cultures varied by cultivation procedure, ranging from 3.2% (1) to 12.5% (4). Analysis of the isolates identified toxinotype V and PFGE type NAP7 or a NAP7 variant.
The authors wrote that they believe their report is the first to document toxinotype V and PFGE NAP7 in poultry meat. Microbial testing suggested that the C diff isolates from poultry meat showed somewhat reduced resistance than for other meat or animal toxinotype V isolates.
Aug 30 Foodborne Pathog Dis abstract
From CIDRAP
Sampling turns up C diff in grocery store chicken
A study of Clostridium difficile in retail chicken found the pathogen in 3% to 12.5% of samples, depending on the cultivation procedure used, according to a study by US Department of Agriculture and Texas A&M researchers in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. In July 2010 they cultivated 32 meat samples from packages they collected from five grocery stores in Bryan and College Station, Tex.
Testing included in-house store brands and nationally known brands. After culturing the samples they used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing to characterize toxin genes, and they tested each C diff isolate they found for susceptibility to 11 antimicrobial agents.
They used pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to compare the genotypes of different isolates. Seven of the 32 meat samples tested positive, and the percent of positive cultures varied by cultivation procedure, ranging from 3.2% (1) to 12.5% (4). Analysis of the isolates identified toxinotype V and PFGE type NAP7 or a NAP7 variant.
The authors wrote that they believe their report is the first to document toxinotype V and PFGE NAP7 in poultry meat. Microbial testing suggested that the C diff isolates from poultry meat showed somewhat reduced resistance than for other meat or animal toxinotype V isolates.
Aug 30 Foodborne Pathog Dis abstract
From CIDRAP