Roles of Aerotolerance, Biofilm Formation, and Viable but Non-Culturable State in the Survival of in Poultry Processing Environments.

is one of the most common causes of foodborne human gastroenteritis in the developed world. This bacterium colonizes in the ceca of chickens, spreads throughout the poultry production chain, and contaminates poultry products. Despite numerous on farm intervention strategies and developments in post-harvest antimicrobial treatments, . is frequently detected on broiler meat products. This indicates that is evolving over time to overcome the stresses/interventions that are present throughout poultry production and processing. The development of aerotolerance has been reported to be a major survival strategy used by in high oxygen environments. Recent studies have indicated that can enter a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state or develop biofilm in response to environmental stressors such as refrigeration and freezing stress and aerobic stress. This review provides an overview of different stressors that are exposed to throughout the poultry production chain and the genotypic and phenotypic survival mechanisms, with special attention to aerotolerance, biofilm formation, and development of the VBNC state.