Prevalence of Campylobacter in chicken and chicken by-products retailed in Sapporo area, Hokkaido, Japan

The present work was carried out to study the prevalence of Campylobacter in fresh chicken meat and chicken by-products on retail level in Sapporo, Japan. Out of the 170 samples of chicken meat (breasts and thighs) and chicken by products (wings, livers, gizzards and hearts), 110 (64.7%) were contaminated with Campylobacter. Among the different products, chicken wings showed the highest contamination incidence (77.1%) followed by chicken thighs (70%), while chicken gizzards and hearts showed the lowest contamination incidence (45% and 40%, respectively). Of the 341 Campylobacter isolates, 278 (81.5%) were identified as Campylobacter jejuni and 63 (18.5%) isolates were identified as C. coli. All of the 341 Campylobacter strains identified by the conventional culture methods were further confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which indicated that almost all (99.4%) of the tested strains were also positive by PCR. Screening of 195 selected Campylobacter isolates for determining their antimicrobial resistance indicated that most of the tested strains (73.3%) were resistant to three or more of antimicrobials examined. The study concluded that high proportion of chicken meat and chicken by-products marketed in Sapporo area are contaminated by Campylobacter, most of which are antimicrobial-resistant strains, with a possible risk from such microorganism especially from consumption of undercooked or post-cooking contaminated chicken products.