Abstract: In order to understand the distribution and structure of airborne microbial communities in poultry slaughterhouses, the quantity of airborne microorganisms in different areas of a slaughterhouse in Zhejiang province before and after slaughter was compared by measuring the total number of colonies, and total bacterial genomic DNA was extracted from the air samples and used as a template to amplify and sequence the V3–V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene by high throughout sequencing. The results showed that there was a difference in the number of airborne microorganisms in different slaughter areas of the poultry slaughterhouse and the microbial quantity after slaughter was higher than before slaughter. Especially, the total number of colonies after slaughter was 71% higher than before slaughter in the poultry hanging area. High throughput sequencing showed no significant differences in the diversity, structure and abundance of bacterial communities before and after slaughter for all slaughter areas (P > 0.05). The majority of the identified bacteria belonged to 6 phyla, and the dominant bacteria were Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria, with total relative abundance of more than 84%. In the top 10 genera, Staphylococcus and Acinetobacter were the dominant bacteria, accounting for 36.90% and 13%, respectively. In addition, Staphylococcus, Stenotrophomonas and Escherichia as conditional pathogenic bacteria accounted for 33.75%, 4.65% and 0.90% in the top 35 genera, respectively. These data suggested that there were some differences in the number of airborne bacteria in different slaughter areas, and a certain number of conditional pathogens were detected in air samples from each area. In conclusion, this study provides a scientific basis for the traceability of microbial contaminants in chicken and improving poultry slaughterhouse hygiene management.

Key words: chicken, airborne microorganisms, high throughput sequencing, microbial flora structure