Prevalence of Listeria spp. in chicken at the retail level

Abstract

Listeria monocytogenes is an ubiquitous environmental microorganism responsible for human listeriosis (Farber and Peterkin, 1991). According to the reports of the World Health Organization, the primary mechanism of transmission of L. monocytogenes to human is through contaminated foodstuffs (WHO Working Group, 1988). Several outbreaks associated with the consumption of soft cheeses (Copes et al., 2000), milk (Moura et al., 1993), fish products (Ericsson et al., 1997), meat and poultry products (Anonymous, 1989) have been reported. In the present study, we examined the prevalence of Listeria spp. and L. monocytogenes in raw chicken legs sold in Bursa province between 2001 and 2002 and identified L. monocytogenes isolates by serotyping.