Effect of ozone treatment on thermo tolerant Campylobacter contaminated poultry products retailed at Baghdad markets/Iraq

ABSTRACT
Campylobacter is the primary cause of bacterial gastrointestinal diseases in humans. While Campylobacter coli (C. coli) is responsible for around 5% of cases, Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) accounts for more than 90% of cases. Human campylobacteriosis can occur mostly by handling raw chicken carcasses improperly or eating undercooked chicken. There is still a significant rate of Campylobacter detection in carcasses after chilling or freezing, even though there are controls in place to reduce cross-contamination. To determine whether or not ozone (0.5 ppm) at refrigeration temperature for 1/2 and 1 hr effectively killed or reduced Campylobacter on chickens, this investigation was conducted. Thirty samples tested positive for Campylobacter and were exposed to ozonated water. After treatment, the percentage of negative samples was 10% after 30 minutes and 63.33% after 60 minutes, according to the data. From a public health perspective, the decline in positive percentage samples was quite noteworthy. The results demonstrated that after 60 minutes at refrigeration temperature, the bacterial counts decreased by 2-4 Log10 (CFU/mL). Also, treatments with ozone for 30 and 60 minutes were tested for their ability to kill Campylobacter. The results showed that 63.33% and 100% of the samples were negative after the treatments. Importantly, this proves that ozone effectively killed Campylobacter even when organic material concentrations were high, which has important implications for public health.