Persistence of and on Whole Chicken Carcasses under the Different Chlorine Concentrations Used in the Chill Tank of Processing Plants in Sri Lanka.

The persistence of non-typhoidal and in chicken meat is a considerable public health risk and a future challenge. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of and in poultry processing lines where different chlorine concentrations were used in the chill tank. The samples were collected from four types of processing plants in Sri Lanka, considering the chlorine concentration used in the chill tank, which ranged from 2 ppm to 50 ppm. and were isolated from whole carcass washings, neck skin, and cecal samples. Subsequently, an antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed for the isolates. The results revealed the overall prevalence of and was 78.25% and 63.5%, respectively. Positive percentages of and were high in the carcasses compared to the neck skin and ceca. The counts on the whole carcasses were significantly low ( < 0.001), at higher chlorine concentrations ranging from 20 to 30 ppm and 40 to 50 ppm. The pathogen prevalence in the whole carcasses was 84.7% , 39.1% , 71.1% Typhimurium, and 28.8% Infantis. The highest resistance was observed for tetracycline (63.8%) in , while it was for gentamicin (87.8%) in . The prevalence percentage of multidrug-resistant was 51.2%, while it was 2.12% for . The persistence of multidrug-resistant and on the post-chill carcasses was highlighted in the present study as a significant public health threat that has to be addressed urgently.