According to the results of this study, the second critical
contamination point is evisceration itself: batches B2 and B5 had
the highest Campylobacter counts at position pEV, immediately
after evisceration (a 19% and 223% increase in CFUs compared to
pPL, respectively). The reason is presumably the high rate of intestine
ruptures during the mechanical/automatic intestine
removal, but nevertheless, compared to pPL, the average contamination
numbers at pEV were 8% lower. The lowest CFU counts in the
evisceration room were recorded at pFR, with an average 40%
reduction compared to pPL. Here, in four out of five batches, an
evident decrease in contamination was observed comparing the
samples from positions pEV and pFR. This reduction is probably
achieved by the intensive rinsing of carcasses immediately after the
evisceration step, inspection of carcasses for the presence of visible
contamination, followed by the manual water spraying carried out
by workers after evisceration and by the final wash before leaving
the evisceration room. A considerable drop in campylobacter
numbers was then recorded in skin samples refrigerated for three
days. This corresponds to a typical situation at a retail level, when
most consumers buy, prepare and consume poultry meat. On
average, the CFU numbers in carcasses refrigerated for three days
were 4.5-times lower (as compared to pFR), while in frozen carcasses
the average reduction was 143-fold, which corresponds to
the results of other studies (Bhaduri and Cottrell, 2004; El Shibiny
et al., 2009).