Isolation and identification of Arcobacter from retail chicken meat in Beijing

Objective To investigate the contamination status of Arcobacter in retail chicken samples in Beijing. Methods A total of 60 retail chicken meat samples were randomly collected from 6 retail outlets in Beijing. Enhanced membrane filter technique was used to isolate Arcobacter from the chicken meat samples, multiplex-PCR was performed to identify Arcobacter spp. and the 16S rRNA and rpoB genes were sequenced. Results Among the 60 samples,44 were Arcobacter positive (73.33%), and 125 Arcobacter strains were isolated. Among the 125 isolates, the most frequently detected species was A. cryaerophilus (91.20%), followed by A. butzleri (8.00%)and A. skirrowii (0.80%).Nine samples (15.00%) were co-contaminated with more than one Arcobacter species. Conclusion Enhanced membrane filter technique could effectively isolate Arcobacter from chicken meat samples. In this area, the contamination of Arcobacter in chicken meat was serious, and the contamination rate of A. cryaerophilus was significantly higher than those of A.butzleri and A. skirrowii in chicken meat samples.