Biological Hazards Associated with Chicken Meat: A Review

Abstract

Chicken meat and meat products are considered as significant sources of high quality animal derived protein, essential amino acids, minerals, and vitamins. Besides, chicken meat is regarded as alternative cheap source of protein compared with the red meat. However, chicken meat can be contaminated with a vast array of microorganisms, and subsequently it can be implicated in many biological hazards such as bacterial food poisoning.  The latter can be divided into bacterial foodborne infections including E. coli, Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Shiegella spp., and Yersinia spp. Bacterial foodborne intoxication including Staphylococcus aureus, and Clostridium botulinum. The third class of the bacterial food poisoning is foodborne toxicoinfection which involves Clostridium perfringens, and Bacillus cereus. This review threw the light on the current scenario of the contamination of the poultry meat with some bacterial hazards in Egypt and worldwide. Besides, the public health significance of such hazards was also discussed.