The effect of slurry storage and anaerobic-digestion on survival of pathogenic bacteria

T.E. Kearney, P.N. Levett, Mike Larkin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

125 Citations (Scopus)

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-degrees-C than at 4-degrees-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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)86-93
Number of pages8
JournalThe Journal of Applied Bacteriology
Volume74
Publication statusPublished - 1993

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