Verocytotoxigenic (VTEC) and enteropathogenic (EPEC) Escherichia coli presence in chicken and retail products increase from the farm to the market

Abstract

Introduction & Objectives: Verocytotoxigenic (VTEC) and enteropathogenic(EPEC) Escherichia coli are important pathogens relatedto Public Health. VTEC cause hemorrhagic colitis and hemolyticuremic syndrome in humans. EPEC produce potentially fatal infantdiarrhea noticeably in developing countries. Most of the studies inchicken and retail products were focused on O157:H7 VTEC, butthere is scarce information about non-O157 VTEC and EPEC contamination.The aim of this study was to evaluate the proportion ofchicken samples contaminated with VTEC or EPEC in live animalsand their products (carcasses, giblets and hamburgers).Material & Methods: Cloacal swabs from live animals (859) weretaken from three farms and a chicken processing plant. Carcassesswabs (457) were obtained from different shops and from washedcarcasses after the chilling step in the processing plant. In addition300 giblets and 300 hamburgers were sampled from different shops.All the samples, after an enrichment step, were analysed by a multiplexPCR to detect vt1, vt2 and eae genes.Results: The carriage of VTEC was very low in live animals butnotably increased during processing and handling especially inchicken hamburgers (Fig. 1). Regarding EPEC, proportion of positivesamples was higher than VTEC and showed a more gradualincrease.Conclusions: These results show that EPEC and specially VTEC contaminationincrease after processing and handling of chicken products,and reinforce the need to improving control measures alongthe production and marketing.