Survey on enteric contamination in New York dressed and eviscerated chickens during storage.

The aim of this study was to widen the existing knowledge on the differences in enteric contamination in uneviscerated (NYD) and eviscerated (E) chickens kept at refrigerated temperature and in conditions of thermal abuse during the storage. After seven and fourteen days of storage, both at +3 °C and in the case of thermal abuse, uneviscerated chickens showed better organoleptic characteristics than eviscerated chickens; the contamination with total coliforms of the deep musculature and the abdominal cavity was also lower in NYD chickens. After fourteen days of storage in eviscerated chickens, the average values recorded for total coliforms were: 5.6+/- 2.11 log cfu/g in thigh muscles (TM), 4.5 +/- 1.36 log cfu/g in back muscles (BM), 4.4 +/- 2.14 log cfu/g in deep pectoral muscles (PM) and 9.0 +/-1 .15 log cfu/cm2 in the abdominal cavity. In New York Dressed poultry, the degree of contamination was determined at values of 0.9 + 0.64 log cfu/g in PM, 2.0 +/- 1 .1 7 log. cfu/g in TM and 2.5+/-2.13 log cfu/g in BM. In the abdominal cavity, the total coliforms reached values ranging between 0.5 and 4.67 log cfu/cm2 with average values of 2.2 +/-1 64 log cfu/cm2. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between E chickens and NYD chickens were found limitedly in the abdominal cavity after the first week and in al1 samples at the end of the storage.