EVALUATION OF OXYRASE METHOD FOR CAMPYLOBACTER ISOLATION FROM CHICKEN CARCASSES¹

Abstract

One hundred fresh chickens were purchased from an area grocery store and assayed for campylobacters by comparing four different isolation methods. In all methods, recovery of campylobacter involved pre‐enrichment in broths for 18–24 h and selective plating for isolation. The four campylobacter isolation methods evaluated included: (1) FSIS method, (2) FDA‐BAM method, (3) modified FDA‐BAM method, and (4) oxyrase‐supplemented Brucella broth enrichment method. Each of the four methods detected campylobacters in over 90% of the chicken carcasses tested. The oxyrase method, however, was found to be more rapid and less labor intensive than the other three methods.