Clostridium perfringens ranks among the three most frequent bacterial pathogens causing human foodborne diseases in Canada, and poultry meat products are identified as a source of infection for humans. The objective of the current study was to estimate the proportion of broiler chicken flocks, carcasses and various environmental samples from critical locations of the slaughter plant positive for the presence of C. perfringens enterotoxin encoding gene (cpe). From the 16 visits conducted, 25% of the 79 flocks sampled, 10% of the 379 carcasses sampled and 5% of the 217 environmental samples collected were found positive for cpe. The proportion of cpe-positive carcasses was statistically different between surveyed plants, with 17.0% for one abattoir and 2.2% for the other. For the most contaminated plant, cpe-positive carcasses were identified at each step of the processing line, with prevalence varying between 10.0% and 25.0%, whereas this prevalence varied between 0% and 25.0% for the environmental surfaces sampled. Based on the results obtained, enterotoxigenic C. perfringens strains could potentially represent a risk for the consumer.
Keywords: Clostridium perfringens; broilers; enterotoxin; prevalence; slaughterhouse; steps.