> Aaron:
> >How does dehydration (sun or low-temp dehydrator) effect microorganisms in raw
> >meats and poultry?
>
> I hope someone knows the answer to this because I'm never sure. Most
> bacteria need moisture to thrive, but whether they can survive a "drought"
> and comeback when remoistirized (as in when saliva-ed) I don't know.
> Further, some molds seem to thrive in lower moisture conditions.
There are many microorganisms which can survive "dry" conditions very
well. Thats for sure for all spore-forming bacteria (Bacillus and
Clostridium) but also for several others. With Salmonella I'm not
quite sure. I know that they are affected by too low moisture but
think part of them could "hold through".

> I further don't understand how most micro-organisms could survive a
> "properly" hydrochloric stomach but I'll bet a buck two eighty that it will
> always remain a mystery to me.
As with moisture, it's a question of the infection dose in the end.
Salmonella are not very acid-resistant, so you need the ingestion of
at least 100.000 to 1.000.000 bacteria to have some survive the
hydrochloric acid in the stomach and infect your intestines. In
contrast, there are some species which are much less susceptible to
acid, i.e. E. coli O157:H7. Of these, 10-100 bacteria are sufficient
to cause severe diarrhea (and perhaps ther complications). Personally,
I'm much more concerned of the latter ones.

Cheers, Sylvia