The effect of slurry storage and anaerobic digestion on survival of pathogenic bacteria |
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| Authors: | Theresa E Kearney MJ Larkin PN Levett |
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| Affiliation: | School of Biology and Biochemistry, The Queen's University of Belfast, Medical Biology Centre, Belfast;Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK |
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| Abstract: | The decline in viable numbers of Salmonella typhimurium, Yersinia enterocolitica and Listeria monocytogenes in beef cattle slurry is temperature-dependent; they decline more rapidly at 17°C than at 4°C. Mesophilic anaerobic digestion caused an initial rapid decline in the viable numbers of Escherichia coli, Salm. typhimurium, Y. enterocolitica and L. monocytogenes. This was followed by a period in which the viable numbers were not reduced by 90%. The T90 values of E. coli, Salm. typhimurium and Y. enterocolitica ranged from 0.7 to 0.9 d during batch digestion and 1.1 to 2.5 d during semi-continuous digestion. Listeria monocytogenes had a significantly higher mean T90 value during semi-continuous digestion (35.7 d) than batch digestion (12.3 d). Anaerobic digestion had little effect in reducing the viable numbers of Campylobacter jejuni. |
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