Cryo-scanning electron microscopy was used to examine bacteria which had grown in a liquid film on the skin surface of poultry carcasses. Pits or void zones surrounding bacteria on ethanol-dehydrated, critical point dried (CPD) samples were not found on washed or untreated specimens frozen prior to examination by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). However, pits equivalent to those produced during chemical fixation and dehydration were formed when skin tissue was treated with ethanol prior to freezing. We conclude that the pits are dehydration artifacts caused by the chemical preparative methods employed rather than the result of degradation of film proteins by extracellular enzymes of microbial origin
