Application of hot water and cold air to reduce bacterial contamination on broiler carcasses.

Two physical treatments (heat via water bath and cold air) with various temperatures (20/70/75/80°C and - 80/-90°C) and exposure times (20, 30, 40 s) were carried out to identify a decontaminating effect on zoonotic pathogens on broiler carcasses. Subsequently, carcasses were analyzed for thermotolerant , , and total colony count (TCC). Moreover, for the hot water treatment, qPCR with viable/dead differentiation (v-qPCR) was applied to detect viable but non-culturable cells (VBNC) of referred to as intact but putatively infectious units (IPIU).