Bacterial contamination of commercial chicken eggs in Grenada, West Indies

ABSTRACT

In Grenada, backyard flocks and unorganized poultry farms contribute to the major share of table eggs and moreover regulations for processing of eggs before retail sale are not at all enforced. To evaluate the bacterial contamination of table eggs, a total of 450 eggs collected from different sources including small farms (150 eggs), large farms (120 eggs), road side vendors (120 eggs) and supermarkets (60 eggs), were cultured for the bacteria. A total of 226 bacterial cultures predominantly of the family Enterobacteriaceae were obtained with a higher proportion from shell membrane (54.4%) than from yolk samples (45.6%). There was no significant difference (P< 0.05) in the number of isolates between various sources indicating the contamination at farm level. The study indicates the need for optimum hygienic conditions at the farm level to decrease the bacterial load.