Abstract

Since meat is the richest protein source and plays an important role in the transmission of bacteria, especially Zeonosis to humans, the pathogenic bacteria outbreaks such asSalmonella, Campylobacter, Yersinia, and Aeromonas in the packed and unpacked chicken meat supplied to some cities of Mazandaran province of Iran performed, which have not been examined and analyzed yet. 200 samples of chicken meat from the early summer of 2010 to late winter of the same year were prepared and tested for 9 months. Sampling was conducted in the places where the meat were packed as well as  the suppliers which had no packing and sold their materials in bulk in different areas of the cities of Mazandaran (Amol, Tonekabon, and Noor cities). All needed tests done exactly based on the instructions No. 2394 of Iranian National Standards Institute. Among the 200 samples of chicken meat prepared from Amol, Tonekabon, and Noor, the contamination of 75 samples were positive. 33 cases of the chicken were contaminated with Salmonella(21.5%), 53 samples with Campylobacter (26.5%), 18 samples with Yersinia anterocolitica (9%) and 14 samples were contaminated with Aeromonas (7%). The observed differences among the samples taken from different areas of the given cities, both in packed and unpacked forms, were statistically significant (P<0.05) and also the unpacked and packed meat product supplying centers in Mazandaran were not significantly different for having some differences in the type of contaminations.

Key words: Pathogenic microbes, chicken meat, Mazandaran province, Iran.