Campylobacter is considered an important foodborne pathogen, having a high impact on public health burden. Source allocation studies identified broiler meat as the most important food transmission vehicle of Campylobacter. In this regard, microbiological limits are under development in the EU and characterisation of microbial contamination seems to be an essential step towards implementing sampling schemes. The aim of this study was to analyse broiler batches processed at three conventional slaughterhouses in Germany for their Campylobacter load at the end of processing. Microbial data of positive and negative batches from the studied slaughterhouses were used to fit different statistical distributions (i.e., lognormal, Poisson-lognormal and negative binomial) by means of the maximum likelihood estimation method. Finally, the performance of microbiological criteria was assessed by calculating the probability of accepting batches using two microbiological limits recently discussed by the European Food Safety Authority (500 and 1,000 cfu/g). Samples of broiler neck skin and caecal content (356 batches) were collected in three German slaughterhouses (A, B and C) for fresh meat production from conventionally reared broilers during the period from July 2013 to June 2016. Microbial analyses of five pooled neck skin samples and one pooled caecal sample per batch were performed. In this study, the prevalence of Campylobacter caecum positive broiler batches processed at slaughterhouses A, B and C was 42.7 (n = 117), 21.7 (n = 120) and 47.9% (n = 119), respectively. The Campylobacter mean count in neck skin samples of positive batches was highest in slaughterhouse A, with 2.9±0.6 log₁₀ cfu/g compared to slaughterhouse B with 2.7±0.7 log₁₀ cfu/g and slaughterhouse C with 2.7±0.7 log₁₀ cfu/g. The results showed that distributions skewed to the right, thus indicating a high proportion of low microbial counts in the samples. Negative binomial regression provided a better fit at low contamination levels (<100 cfu/g), while the Poisson-lognormal distribution described both within- and between-batch variability better at higher microbial counts. The fitted statistical distributions were further used to evaluate the performance of different microbiological criteria based on an acceptance sampling approach in relation to the defective units based on different limits (mean counts) set at each slaughterhouse. Results obtained will help food business operators to evaluate the status of microbiological hygiene and safety in relation to Campylobacter contamination, also assisting them in setting their own limits of acceptance for process improvement under consideration of existing legal requirements.

弯曲杆菌被认为是重要的食源性病原体，对公共卫生负担有很大影响。来源分配研究确定肉鸡是弯曲杆菌最重要的食物传播媒介。在这方面，欧盟正在制定微生物限度，对微生物污染进行表征似乎是实施采样方案必不可少的步骤。这项研究的目的是分析在德国的三个常规屠宰场加工的肉鸡弯曲杆菌的批次。在处理结束时加载。通过最大似然估计方法，使用来自所研究的屠宰场的阳性和阴性批次的微生物数据来拟合不同的统计分布（即对数正态，泊松对数正态和负二项式）。最后，通过使用欧洲食品安全局最近讨论的两个微生物限度（500和1,000 cfu / g）计算接受批次的可能性，评估了微生物标准的性能。在2013年7月至2016年6月期间，从三只德国屠宰场（A，B和C）收集了肉鸡颈部皮肤和盲肠含量的样本（356批次），以通过常规饲养的肉鸡生产新鲜肉类。对五种合并的颈部皮肤进行了微生物分析每批进行一次样本和一份盲肠样本合并样本。在屠宰场A，B和C处加工的盲肠弯曲杆菌阳性肉鸡批次分别为42.7（n = 117），21.7（n = 120）和47.9％（n = 119）。屠宰场A的阳性批次颈部皮肤样品中的弯曲杆菌平均计数最高，屠宰场A为2.9±0.6 log ₁₀ cfu / g，而屠宰场B的屠宰场B为2.7±0.7 log ₁₀ cfu / g，屠宰场C的屠宰场C为2.7±0.7 log ₁₀ cfu / g。cfu /克 结果表明，分布偏向右侧，因此表明样品中低微生物计数的比例很高。负二项式回归在低污染水平（<100 cfu / g）下提供了更好的拟合度，而泊松对数正态分布描述了在较高的微生物数量下批次内和批次间的变异性更好。基于每个屠宰场设定的不同限值（平均数），基于验收抽样方法对缺陷单元进行相关的统计分布，进一步将拟合的统计分布用于评估不同微生物标准的性能。所获得的结果将有助于食品行业的经营者评估与弯曲杆菌有关的微生物卫生和安全状况 污染，还帮助他们在考虑现有法律要求的情况下为过程改进设定自己的接受极限。