Development and Evaluation of Fluorescence Immunochromatography for Rapid and Sensitive Detection of Thermophilic .

() and () are leading causes of foodborne gastroenteritis in Japan. Epidemiological surveillance has provided evidence that poultry meat is one of the main reservoirs for human campylobacteriosis, and therefore, improvement in process hygiene at slaughter is required to reduce the number of human infections. This study thus aimed to develop fluorescent immunochromatography strips for rapid and sensitive detection of thermophilic on poultry carcasses at slaughter. To establish the required detection levels, we first determined the numbers of and on poultry carcasses at one large-scale poultry slaughterhouse in Japan, resulting in the detection of at 1.97 ± 0.24 log CFU/25 g of neck skin during the post-chilling process by using ISO 10272-2:2017. Our developed fluorescence immunochromatography (FIC) assay exhibited a 50% limit of detection of 3.51 log CFU or 4.34 log CFU for NCTC 11168 or JCM 2529, respectively. Inclusive and exclusive tests resulted in good agreement. The practical usefulness of this test toward poultry carcasses should be evaluated in future studies, perhaps concentration of the target microorganisms prior to the testing might be helpful to further enhance sensitivity. Nevertheless, our data suggest the potential of FIC for rapid and sensitive detection of thermophilic for monitoring the process hygiene of poultry carcasses at slaughter.