Survival of Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis in homemade smoked pork sausages

Abstract

We assessed the survival of Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis (MAH) in artificially contaminated homemade smoked sausages prepared from pork meat according to traditional recipes, the effect of storage of such sausages at –20°C for three months on MAH viability and to compare assessment of MAH viability/presence by culture and qPCR. Three isolates of MAH were inoculated into the sausage mixture at concentrations of 10⁶ CFU per gram of meat and cold smoked at 40°C for 12 h or hot smoked at 70°C for 6 hours. MAH survived the cold smoking procedure without any significant decrease in viable MAH CFU counts; no viable MAH were detected in the hot smoked sausages. The storage of sausages at –20°C caused a decrease in viable MAH counts of about 1 to 3 log₁₀. Absolute MAH counts determined by qPCR were not significantly reduced by the storage or smoking. The presence of viable MAH in sausages after the cold smoking should be considered as a risk for immunodeficient individuals and children.