S. Department of Agriculture (FSIS UDSA) [20], the International 5-Fluoracil Organization for Standardization [21], the Health Protection Agency of the UK [22], and several other countries’ regulatory agencies. However, this methodology does not appear to be optimized to detect the true prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in retail broiler meat. PCR analysis of the isolates showed

that C. jejuni or C. coli species are the only Campylobacter spp. found in retail broiler meat. Some samples can be contaminated with both species [17] but again the current methodology used in food samples is not accurate enough to reveal the extent of contamination of the same product with different Campylobacter strains. PFGE analysis further demonstrated that a single meat sample could be contaminated with two, or maybe more, isolates from the

selleck compound same species. For all practical purposes, C. jejuni and C. coli are the only two Campylobacter spp. found in retail poultry meat because no C. lari has been identified since the introduction of molecular techniques for routine identification of Campylobacter isolates, approximately 15 years ago [23]. The data collected with the O2 sensors showed that the amount of O2 in the enrichment broth was stable around 5-7 ppm after 6 h of enrichment. These O2 levels can be obtained by pressing out the air before closing the sample bags, and without the need of any vacuum, heptaminol as is required when removing the air from a hard container. Whirl-Pak or ziplock bags performed similarly,

showing that they are impervious to changes in the air trapped inside [13]. The fact that bags with only the enrichment broth (without meat or blood) created microaerobic conditions has encouraged us to continue this line of research, and we are currently testing other broths without blood to isolate Campylobacter spp. from retail broiler meat. Therefore, an inexpensive, simplified method can be developed for routinely use in the isolation and detection of Campylobacter spp. from food products. Incubation of broth under normal aerobic conditions, with or without airspace, was done in the early 1980s to isolate Campylobacter spp. from fecal samples [24], and the use of 10% O2, 10% CO2 and 80% of N2 facilitated and sustained the growth of Campylobacter spp. [25]. The ISO normative 10272-1:2006 requires a microaerobic environment but provides for an alternative incubation in a microaerobic atmosphere created by “”screw-capped bottles or flasks filled with enrichment broth, leaving a headspace of less than 2 cm, and tightly closing the caps”" [21].