Differential Survival of Hyper-Aerotolerant under Different Gas Conditions.

accounts for a significant number of foodborne illnesses around the world. is microaerophilic and typically does not survive efficiently in oxygen-rich conditions. We recently reported that hyper-aerotolerant (HAT) are highly prevalent in retail poultry meat. To assess the capabilities of HAT in foodborne transmission and infection, in this study, we investigated the prevalence of virulence genes in HAT and the survival in poultry meat in atmosphere at a refrigeration temperature. When we examined the prevalence of eight virulence genes in 70 strains from raw poultry meat, interestingly, the frequencies of detecting virulence genes were significantly higher in HAT strains than aerosenstive strains. This suggests that HAT would potentially be more pathogenic than aerosensitive . Under aerobic conditions, aerosensitive survived at 4°C in raw poultry meat for 3 days, whereas HAT survived in poultry meat for a substantially extended time; there was a five-log CFU reduction over 2 weeks. In addition, we measured the effect of other gas conditions, including N and CO, on the viability of HAT in comparison with aerosensitive and aerotolerant strains. N marginally affected the viability of . However, CO significantly reduced the viability of both in culture media and poultry meat. Based on the results, modified atmosphere packaging using CO may help us to control poultry contamination with HAT .