Campylobacter outbreak due to undercooked chicken livers

The first reported multistate outbreak from undercooked chicken liver in the US

Six people were sickened and two were hospitalized, said the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Affected  were exposed to raw or lightly cooked chicken livers produced at the same poultry factory (establishment A) collected livers yielded the same strain of C. jejuni.

In October 2012 the VDH identified three cases of laboratory-confirmed C.  jejuni infection in Vermont residents; the isolates had indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns. PulseNet, the molecular subtyping network for foodborne disease surveillance, led to one additional case from New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont reported in the preceding six months.

Farm worker exposed: One of the people was exposed to the pathogen while working on the farm, the other four cases became ill after eating the livers, which were deliberately undercooked to maintain their texture.

USDA-FSIS found that establishment A, which stopped selling chicken livers, used antimicrobial cleaners to the livers, these efforts only affect the external surfaces and because Campylobacter contamination can be internal, the safety of undercooked chicken livers was not assured.

A food safety assessment conducted by the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) found no major violations.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that poultry must reach an internal temperature of 165oF (73.9oC) for at least 15 seconds.

Studies have shown that 77% of retail chicken livers are contaminated with Campylobacter and contamination is usually in internal tissues as well as on the surface.

Patients affected:  The six patients ranged in age from 19 to 87 years; three were female. Two were hospitalized, but all six had recovered by the time of their interviews.

Frozen chicken livers collected from restaurant A were sent to the VDH laboratory, minced into 13 25-gram subsamples and enriched as normal for the C. jejuni immunoassay. Two of the 13 subsamples screened gave positive results, but the pathogen could not be recovered in culture.

Source:FoodQualityNews.com