Prevalence of Salmonella spp. in Packed and Unpacked Red Meat and Chicken in South of Tehran

BACKGROUND: Despite of the advances in infectious diseases prevention and food technology, food-borne diseases are considered major problems in developed and developing countries. Meat plays a key role in transferring zoonotic diseases to human. OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted in south of Tehran, Iran, to investigate the prevalence rate of Salmonella spp. in packed and unpacked red meat and chicken. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 379 packed and unpacked samples including 189 red meat and 190 chicken samples were collected randomly. From each sample, 25 g was separated and treated with 225 mL of buffered peptone water, homogenized and incubated at 37°C for 24 hours. Samples were enriched using Rappaport-Vassiliadis broth and then streaked onto Hektoen enteric agar. RESULTS: Totally, 86 out of 190 chicken and 38 out of 189 red meat samples were contaminated with Salmonella spp. The most isolated serotypes were Salmonella thompson (67.7%), S. heaardt (6.5%), S. enteritidis (4.8%), and S. veyle (4%), respectively. In general, the rate of chicken contamination was higher than meat, as 43.3% of packed and 46% of unpacked chicken samples were contaminated. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirmed the pervious findings, stating that proper packaging of meat products can effectively decreases the rate of microbial contaminations.