Broiler production practices in Meknes

This book presents the results of a research on the evaluation of the impact of broiler production practices in Meknes on bacteriological quality antibiotic resistance and antibiotic residues in finished poultry products. Eleven risk factors out of 24 tested were found to be significantly associated with salmonella contamination of the batches. The results of this work showed that scalding plucking and evisceration are sites of cross-contamination of carcasses during slaughter operations in traditional poultry slaughterhouses. Assessment of antibiotic resistance in bacterial strains isolated from broilers has revealed fairly high rates of multidrug resistance especially to antibiotic molecules of long-standing use in animal husbandry such as streptomycin and tetracyclines. The screening of antibiotic residues in samples of products from intensive poultry farming showed the presence of these molecules in 36.15% of cases. HPLC analysis of samples suspected of containing tetracyclines showed doses below the MRLs set by the WHO.