in retail broiler meat may PXD101 in vivo be underestimated. An optimal methodology that could detect the true number of positive samples and/or the samples with the highest number of Campylobacter spp. would provide a more accurate prevalence for surveillance purposes of these pathogens in retail broiler meat. There is substantial information suggesting that the predominant Campylobacter spp. present in commercial broiler products are C. jejuni and C. coli, a trend that is especially

clear in industrialized nations [27, 28, 36]. Because Campylobacter spp. are inert, very few biochemical tests are used for identification of species. These tests are mainly performed in qualified laboratories studying the taxonomy of

these bacteria where several controls are evaluated in parallel to avoid false identification. Therefore, molecular techniques, mainly the polymerase chain reaction validated by sequencing and Southern blotting, provide simple, robust identification to the species level. In a recent summary of the current Campylobacter spp. worldwide prevalence, C. jejuni was the predominant Campylobacter spp. isolated from retail poultry with the exception of Thailand and South Africa, where the predominant species was C. coli[31]. In some countries, C. coli represents less than 20% of all the Campylobacter isolates found in retail broiler meats [31, 37, 38]; yet, they learn more are at a prevalence that exceeds 20% in live broiler chickens. This difference may be explained by the isolation procedure: direct plating is used to analyze fecal material from live animals, while enrichment is used to analyze retail broiler meat. Both Campylobacter spp. have been found in enriched retail samples [10], but it is not clear if enrichment procedures hinder one species versus the other, or favor the species that contain more vegetative cells at the beginning of the enrichment

procedure. Although Histamine H2 receptor other countries, such as Denmark, have shown a strong seasonal correlation in the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in broiler flocks and in retail broiler meat [38], there were no seasonal variations detected in C. jejuni. Although statistical differences were seen for C. coli, a larger database is needed to confirm these results. There is no long-term data to assess the changes in the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. present in retail broiler meats. The DAPT nmr results from 2005 clearly show that C. coli was the predominant species. These strains were tested with the same PCR assays as the rest of the data set; therefore, there is no bias in the methodology for identification. These data suggest that the product, the processing plant, the region, and even the season, may impact the prevalence of these pathogens in retail broiler meats. A large diversity in the PFGE profiles of Campylobacter spp.