title: Detection of PathogenicYersinia Enterocoliticain Slaughtered Pigs by Cultural Methods and Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction.
abstract: Healthy pigs carrying pathogenic to humanYersinia enterocoliticastrains are the main source of entry into slaughterhouse, where cross-contamination of carcasses can happen. The aim of this work was to determineY. enterocoliticaprevalence in slaughtered pigs, investigating the presence of carriers in relation to carcass contamination. A total of 132 pig samples (tonsils, mesenteric lymph nodes, colon content, carcass surface) were collected from 4 Sardinian slaughterhouses. All the samples were examined by the ISO 10273:2003 method, and the prevalence was also determined by direct plating on CIN Agar. Moreover, to detect theailpositiveY. enterocoliticastrains in enrichment broths and isolates a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was applied.Y. enterocoliticaprevalence was 19% with direct plating and 12% with enrichment methods. Carcass surfaces and tonsils prevalence was 5.30% by direct plating, and 5.3% and 2.2%, respectively, by enrichment method. Tonsil samples showed an average contamination level of 3.2×103 CFU/g, while the mean value on carcass was 8.7×102 CFU/g. An overall prevalence of 9.8% ofailpositiveY. enterocoliticabroths was detected by RT-PCR, that found a higher prevalence in tonsils (7.5%) with respect to cultural methods, confirming the greater sensitivity of this technique when applied for tonsils and faeces samples. The results show a relatively low pathogenicY. enterocoliticaprevalence in pigs slaughtered in Sardinia. Good hygiene measures should be applied at slaughterhouse in order to prevent the entry of carriers and control carcass contamination.
authors: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari.
authors: Rina
authors: R
authors: Mazzette
authors: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari.
authors: Federica
authors: F
authors: Fois
authors: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari.
authors: Simonetta Gianna
authors: SG
authors: Consolati
authors: Institute for Experimental Veterinary Medicine of Sardinia , Sassari.
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Salza
authors: Institute for Experimental Veterinary Medicine of Sardinia , Sassari.
authors: Tiziana
authors: T
authors: Tedde
authors: Local Health Unit n.1 , Sassari.
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Soro
authors: Local Health Unit n.6 , Sanluri (VS), Italy.
authors: Carlo
authors: C
authors: Collu
authors: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari.
authors: Daniela
authors: D
authors: Ladu
authors: Institute for Experimental Veterinary Medicine of Sardinia , Sassari.
authors: Sebastiano
authors: S
authors: Virgilio
authors: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari.
authors: Francesca
authors: F
authors: Piras
keywords: Ail gene; Carcass; Real-time PCR; Slaughtered pig; Yersinia enterocolitica