Growth and survival characteristics of Campylobacter jejuni in liquid egg

Growth and survival of four Campylobacter jejuni strains in yolk, in liquid whole egg and in white during aerobic storage at 37, 20 and 4 degrees C was followed. In 48 h at 37 degrees C the cell counts of C. jejuni increased by about 3 log10 units in yolk and 1.60-3.35(10) log units in liquid whole egg. The growth of C. jejuni was slightly better in yolk than in liquid whole egg. At 20 degrees C during 48 h the cell counts decreased by about 0.5-1.5 log10 units in yolk and in liquid whole egg. At 4 degrees C the decrease in cell counts after 21 days ranged from 1 to 2 log10 units, except for one strain, KH3, which could not be detected after 14 days storage in yolk. In liquid whole egg the cell counts of this strain also decreased considerably during storage. In white the number of inoculated C. jejuni cells decreased rapidly. The killing effect of white was shown to be temperature-dependent; at 37 and 20 degrees C no positive samples were detected after 24 h and at 4 degrees C no positive samples were found after 48 h.