Bacteriological quality of freshly processed broiler chickens as affected by carcass pretreatment and gamma irradiation

Chicken carcasses dipped in whey fermented by Streptococcus thermophilus, lactic acid solution or water and irradiated at 2.5 kGy by 60Co were evaluated for bacteriological quality on day 1, day-3 and at 3-day intervals for an 18-day storage (4 degrees C) period. Unirradiated carcasses treated similarly were used as control. Gram negative bacteria, Yersinia and Campylobacter counts were significantly (p0.01) lower in irradiated samples, but no significant (p0.05) differences were observed ammong the dipping solutions. Salmonellae were completely eliminated in irradiated samples. Whey fermented by S. thermophilus reduced the proportion of Salmonella contaminated carcasses from 67% to 20%. As evidenced by the bacterial counts the shelf-life was found to be 15 days for irradiated carcasses compared to about 6 days for the unirradiated samples