Improving Enrichment of Campylobacter on Poultry for Enhanced Laboratory System Performance

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Field Service Laboratories (FSLs) conducted a two-phase comparison to evaluate the performance of various Campylobacter enrichment broths, with the aim of identifying a more efficient enrichment procedure including a reduced incubation period. In the first phase, four enrichment broths, double strength blood-free Bolton’s enrichment broth (2x BF-BEB), Hunt broth, Campylobacter enrichment broth (Neogen®), and blood-free charcoal (BFC), were assessed for Campylobacter recovery for five poultry products. These products included young chicken carcasses, turkey carcasses, chicken parts (legs, breasts, and wings), comminuted chicken and comminuted turkey. 2x BF-BEB and Hunt broth emerged as the most efficient enrichment broth choices, from the combined five product with sensitivities of 94% (95% confidence intervals (CI), 85–98%), and 97% (95% CI, 89.6–99.6), and pooled specificities of 93.8% (95% CI, 84.8–98.3), and 96.8% (95% CI, 89–99.6), respectively. No significant difference in the presence of Campylobacter were observed between the two. In the second phase, paired samples were utilized to detect Campylobacter in the three chicken product types. Employing a “Gold Standard Approach” across the products, both broths demonstrated equivalent frequencies of positive samples, with moderate agreement in the results for both broths (with highest Kappa value of 0.68 for comminuted chicken). Hunt broth emerged as the optimal replacement for the 2x BF-BEB in the FSIS FSL analytical methods, given its equivalence for Campylobacter detection and shorter incubation time.