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Hygiene and biosecurity deficiencies in breeding farms are amplified exponentially in the hatchery. The microbial population present in the hatchery has a significant impact on the quality of the chicks, on their chances of survival and their productive performances. The purpose of the present study was to assess the degree of bacterial contamination of chicken eggs in an industrial poultry hatchery. Samples of twenty batches of eggs, collected at different stages of the incubation, from the arrival to the hatcher, were subjected to bacteriological tests. The bacterial contamination of the eggs at the arrival, both of the shells than of the yolks, was found to be rather low. Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other bacteria of minor importance such as Citrobacter freundii, Providencia alcalifaciens, Enterobacter spp., Enterobacter agglomerans, Pseudomonas cepacia, Sphingomonas paucimobilis were isolated. At the hatching, the bacterial contamination was significantly larger. Escherichia coli was present in the 88,25% of eggs pipped but chicks dead-in-shell, and in most of the chicks dead-in-shell without pipping (22%). Various other bacteria species were also isolated (in association or not with Escherichia coli or Salmonella Livingstone), in particular: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis, Enterobacter spp., Escherichia fergusonii, Citrobacter koseri, Citrobacter amalonaticus, Citrobacter freundii, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Acinetobacter lwoffii, Serratia liquefaciens. Salmonella Livingstone was isolated from dead-in-shell chicks of two batches of eggs. The results of the present survey confirm the role of Escherichia coli as one of the major bacterial contaminant of poultry hatcheries. Moreover, results of our study highlight how the hatchery may have an amplifier effect of the bacterial contamination. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli, present respectively in the 5% and in the 10% of the batches of eggs at the arrival, were found during the hatching respectively in the 15% and 100% of dead-in-shell chicks.

Scopo del lavoro è stato quello di valutare il grado di inquinamento batterico di uova di pollo nelle diverse fasi dell’incubazione, dall’arrivo alla schiusa, in un incubatoio industriale. Sono state campionate 20 partite. Per ogni partita sono state prelevate 20 uova all’arrivo, tenendole distinte per fornitore (provenienza Francia, Italia, Portogallo) e 40 alla schiusa: 20 non schiuse, con guscio integro, ed altre 20 non schiuse ma con guscio parzialmente beccato. L’esame batteriologico per la ricerca in particolare di Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli e Salmonella spp. È stato eseguito da gusci e tuorli mentre solo dalle uova in arrivo e da quelle in schiusa non beccate è stata determinata la carica batterica totale del guscio. E. coli è stato il batterio maggiormente isolato. Esso era presente in percentuale crescente nelle uova in arrivo, in quelle in schiusa (non beccate e beccate). Altri batteri appartenenti alle Enterobacteriaceae sono stati isolati in percentuale inferiore rispetto a E. coli e quasi sempre associati ad esso. In particolare sono stati isolati: Salmonella livingstone, Citrobacter spp. (C. koseri, C. amalonaticus), Enterobacter agglomerans, Proteus mirabilis, Serratia liquefaciens e Providencia alcalifaciens. Pseudomonas aeruginosa era presente nelle uova in arrivo ed in quelle beccate, ma in percentuale inferiore rispetto a E. coli. Salmonella livingstone è stata isolata solo in due pool di sacchi vitellini, da uova beccate. Altri batteri isolati sono stati Sphingomonas paucimobilis dal guscio di uova in arrivo ed Acinetobacter spp. nel sacco vitellino.