Prevalence of Salmonella on retail chicken meat in Russian Federation

The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of Salmonella on raw retail chicken meat in Russia. Broiler chicken carcasses (n = 698) were collected from three regions of Russia: central (i.e., Moscow area), northwest (i.e., St. Petersburg area), and southern (i.e., Krasnodar area). In each region, samples were collected to represent various cities and districts, as well as different types of retail stores and carcass storage temperatures (i.e., chilled and frozen). All chicken samples were analyzed for the presence of Salmonella using a whole-carcass rinse method. The overall Salmonella prevalence was 31.5%. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) in Salmonella prevalence by (i) region-29.3% (n = 464) in Moscow, 38.5% (n = 192) in St. Petersburg, and 23.8% (n = 42) in Krasnodar; (ii) retail store type-28.8% (n = 236) in hypermarkets, 31.9% (n = 260) in supermarkets (part of chain stores), 44.3% (n = 61) in independent supermarkets, 42.9% (n = 28) in independent minimarkets, and 26.6% (n = 113) in wet markets; and (iii) poultry company-34.3% (n = 545) on chickens produced by integrated companies compared with 22.9% (n = 118) on chickens produced by nonintegrated companies. Strategies such as good agriculture and management practices should be enhanced to reduce Salmonella prevalence on raw poultry in Russia and therefore increase the safety of chicken products.