Campylobacter species are the most important pathogens that cause bacterial gastroenteritis being spread through food with animal origin. Given such fact, the current study aimed at evaluating Campylobacter phenotypic and genotypic outbreaks in chicken meat and its edible offal at West Azerbaijan province, Iran. To conduct the study, a total of 552 chicken samples including meat (138 samples), liver (138 samples), gizzard (138 samples) and hearts (138 samples) were randomly collected from poultry slaughterhouses at West Azerbaijan province from April 2014 to September 2014. Based on the culture tests, 208 samples (37/7%) were infected with Campylobacter species. The highest range of Campylobacter species outbreaks was observed in poultry liver (49/2%), followed by gizzard (42/8%), heart (33/3 %) and meat (25/4%). Among the isolated Campylobacter, the Jejuni type was the most prevalent (78/4%) and the rest were of Coli type (21/6%). All 208 species of Campylobacter isolated as Jejuni and Coli types from culturing were also approved by multiplex polymerase chain reaction test (m.PCR). A statistically significant difference (P <0.05) was observed in Campylobacter species outbreak in meat samples taken in summer (40/9%). The results of the study pinpointed to the chicken edible offal importance as a potential source of bacterial Campylobacter infections.
Campylobacter, Poultry Meat, edible Offal’s, Western Azerbaijan.
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