Is Salmonella hiding in poultry joints?

The foodborne pathogen finds its way onto poultry meat despite sanitation efforts. Could it be arriving on the product later in the process?

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MONIPHOTO | BigStockPhoto.com
MONIPHOTO | BigStockPhoto.com

Salmonella may be hiding inside the joints of chickens and turkeys, according to new research from Colorado State University.

Dr. Jennifer Martin, assistant professor at the Colorado State University’s Center for Meat Safety and Quality, said new research shows Salmonella may lurk inside the synovial joints of birds. Martin spoke as part of the American Meat Science Association’s Reciprocal Meat Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 25.

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Dr. Jennifer Martin, Colorado State University | Photo by Austin Alonzo

A stubborn problem

Salmonella is a consistent food safety challenge for the poultry industry. The pathogen is responsible for the majority of foodborne illnesses in the United States and is particularly troublesome for the chicken industry. Martin said Salmonella infection related to poultry consumption is one of the leading causes of gastroenteritis in humans, too.

The highest prevalence of Salmonella is found in chicken parts. The vast majority of chicken meat consumed in the U.S. is sold as parts rather than as a whole bird. The pathogen is also more common in the further processed and mechanically separated products making up a large portion of the products consumed in the U.S.

Salmonella continues to be an issue despite the best efforts of processors to sanitize the carcass and protect food safety. This led Martin to ask where the disease may be hiding on the bird. She theorized it could potentially be in skin crevices, feather follicles or the skeletal system.

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Salmonella may be entering poultry processing through the synovial fluid of joints. | pseudolongino | BigStockPhoto.com

Testing for Salmonella in poultry joints

Past research shows Salmonella prevalence is higher in bone-in products than boneless products. About 20 percent of chicken bones test positive for the bacteria. Furthermore, she and her students observed a connection between Salmonella and arthritis, and they noted how Salmonella infections can occur in human patients experiencing trauma to the joints or receiving knee replacement surgery.

This, along with other research, showed there’s something about synovial joints and synovial fluid promoting Salmonella harborage. If the pathogen is present in poultry joints, she theorized, then it could be spreading from there.

To test the hypothesis, Martin and her students collected birds – raised both conventionally and antibiotic-free – from processing facilities around the country and intensively decontaminated the carcass to ensure Salmonella wasn’t present elsewhere on the bird. The team then sampled the synovial joints of the bird for the bacteria.

Results and conclusions

The team found Salmonella in the joints of 1 percent of the birds. While it doesn’t sound like a large number, Martin said that translates to about 87 million out of the about 8.7 billion broilers processed in the country. Also, the research suggested the presence of Salmonella was not the result of systemic infection but rather the bacteria is localized in the joints. It’s unclear how it got there, possibly through an injury or some other form of exposure, but the presence of Salmonella in one joint wasn’t correlated to Salmonella in all joints, she said.

“This tells us that Salmonella can be isolated from the synovial fluid of commercial broilers. It suggests that this could be a potential contamination pathway,” Martin said. “Even though the prevalence is low, this could be a way in which Salmonella is entering into poultry production.”

Martin said more research is necessary to expand upon this idea. This experiment did not cover how the bacteria wound up in the synovial fluid or why it’s staying there. However, Martin said the synovial fluid could be a reason why the bacteria is more prevalent in parts and mechanically separated products than in whole birds and how Salmonella is evading conventional monitoring systems.

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