Introduction: Food borne diseases are a serious public health problem. Poultry are often associated with these outbreaks.
Objective: A systematic review of the literature is provided concerning the distribution and frequency of food borne outbreaks associated with consumption of chicken contaminated with Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus.
Materials and methods: The search for studies of outbreaks associated with Salmonella, S. aureus and L. monocytogenes was conducted in Medline, PubMed, Science Direct, Scielo, Cochrane Library (CCRT), Virtual Health Library (VHL), Highwire, HINARI and MedicLatina. Data were obtained for the calculation of odds ratio (OR) by preparing contingency tables using the RevMan5 program.
Results: Seven articles met the inclusion criteria; however, no reports of L. monocytogenes were obtained. The overall OR was 3.01 (95% CI: 2.37, 3.81); this was interpreted as a significant association between the consumption of contaminated chicken and food poisoning. In the included studies heterogeneity (p= 0.03) was presented, so it took a subgroup analysis of microorganisms, in the case of Salmonella OR was 2.67 (95% CI: 2.09 -3.41). No analysis was made for S. aureus reported a single article.
Conclusions: The OR indicated a strong association between chicken consumption and acquisition of salmonellosis. The main risk factor for acquiring salmonellosis is the consumption of chicken from grill restaurants.