Campylobacter in the Pork Food Chain : a quantitative hazard analysis

Campy/obacter are one of the most frequent causes of bacterial enteritis in industrialized countries and are widespread 1n food ammals. Pigs are known to be largely contaminated in farms, but few data exist about the status of the pork food chain. The purpose of this study was to quantify the Campylobacter contammat1on of the French pork food chain · prevalence, contamination level, bactenal species 1n primary product1on (piglets and fattening p1gs when slaughtered), and in first and second transformation process (from carcasses before chilling to deboned meat cuts). A total of 1286 rectal samples (from 1036 piglets 25 days old, and from 250 fattening pigs) and 3500 meat samples (from 550 carcasses and 300 meat cuts, 2 or 8 samples/carcass and 2 samples/cut, 25 cm2/sample) were collected from 9 pigs from confined farrow-to-finish farms (3 batches per farm were tested over a year), randomly selected, and five slaughterhouses and SIX cutting plants. Bacteriological results showed that 77% of the p1glets and 1 00 % of the fattening pigs were infected with high levels of contamination: 40 000 cfu/g of faeces (50 to 5 106 cfu/g). Before chilling, 23% of the carcasses (2 sites) were contaminated with low levels (2 3 cfu/cm2 as a mean value) w1th high variations between samples (0.4 to 330 cfu/cm2) , and 9,7% of the carcasses (8 sites) after chilling were contaminated. Primal cuts contamination was lower than 1%, and no Campylobacter detected after deboning. On the basis of multiplex-PCR identification, 0 isolates were identified as C. jejuni, 91% (1028/1128) as C. coli and 9% (100/1128) campylobacter-like. From these data we concluded that Campylobacter coli carriage is high in pork primary production, but hyg1ene procedures (GHP, HACCP ... ) are essential to maintain the low contamination of carcasses and meat cuts. The link between Campy/obacter porcine and human strains remains to be established, and their virulence for humans studied.