Poultry is a major source of meat worldwide. According to
reports by the FAO (2006), poultry meat accounted for
approximately 31% of global meat consumption. The popularity
and consumption of poultry meat has been increasing
in recent years. Poultry meat consumption, particularly in
developing countries, is projected to grow by 38% by 2019
compared with the consumption from 2007–2009 (Bett
et al. 2013). The reasons for the increasing popularity and
consumption of poultry meat include its high nutritional
value, low fat content and relatively low cost of production
(which results in a low selling price) (Rimal 2005; Chouliara
et al. 2007). However, consumers are concerned about the
microbial safety of poultry meat because of the knowledge
that poultry meats are highly perishable due to bacterial
contamination (Hong et al. 2007; Rahman et al. 2012), and
some bacterial contaminants in poultry meat have been recognized
as foodborne human pathogen (Capita et al. 2001).
Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter and Escherichia coli are
naturally present bacterial contaminants in chicken intestine
(Anang et al. 2007).