Effect of different cleaning regimens on recovery of Clostridium perfringens on poultry live haul containers.
Clostridium perfringens is important to both poultry producers and humans. The excretion rate of pathogenic foodborne bacteria increases after live haul; however, the majority of research into flock cross-contamination has been performed on Salmonella and Campylobacter. Research into the sources of C. perfringens in poultry operations have implied that dirty transport containers do harbor this organism and, therefore, can potentially contaminate subsequent flocks. The objectives of this study were to examine both small plastic crates and large dump coops to determine which cleaning regimens were most effective in reducing C. perfringens contamination. Additionally, 2 different holding periods for small crates were compared to determine whether holding time influences C. perfringens recovery before and after cleaning. Two experiments were performed. One involved small plastic crates; the other involved large dump coops. Four small crate cleaning and disinfection treatments consisted of pressure washing, pressure washing and sun-drying, pressure washing with a (5%, vol/vol) sodium hypochlorite dip, and pressure washing with a quaternary ammonium dip. The second experiment involved dump coops. The 5 dump coop cleaning and disinfection treatments consisted of pressure washing, pressure washing with a (5%, vol/vol) sodium hypochlorite spray, pressure washing with a quaternary ammonium spray, 48-h drying after the sodium hypochlorite spray, and 48-h drying after the quaternary ammonium spray. The recovery of C. perfringens from small and large dirty transport containers averaged 1.94 and 4.43 log10 cfu/mL, respectively. There was no significant difference in C. perfringens recovery based on holding time for small crates. With small crates, pressure washing provided a significant decrease in the amount of C. perfringens recovered. The greatest bacterial reduction in dump coops, 2 to 3 log10 cfu/mL, was observed after 48 h of drying. This information provides solutions to poultry operations to reduce the cross-contamination of this food safety pathogen via transport containers.
McCrea
B A
BA
Animal Science Department, University of California, Davis 95616-8521, USA.
Macklin
K S
KS