Microbiological status of cattle carcasses BY slaughter stages

According to Regulation (EC) 2073 ⁄ 2005 (European Commission, 2005), amended by Regulation (EC) 1441 ⁄ 2007, microbiological criteria for evaluating carcasses of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and horses include aerobic colony counts and Enterobacteriaceae counts on carcasses after dressing but before chilling. The excision sampling method is exclusively recommended to asses the hygienic quality of carcasses. Swabbing is also permitted but only if a correlation has previously been found between the excision and swabbing techniques. Swabbing is acceptable only when substantial fractions of bacteria, present on sampled areas are recovered. It is generally accepted that the excision method recovers significantly higher numbers of bacteria from meat surfaces compared with swabbing. Excision is the most effective bacterial carcass sampling method. In this study, microbiological indicators for HACCP slaughterhouse line in a special business operator were evaluated. A total of 25 carcasses from slaughterhouse production line were determined for total aerobic mezophilic bacteria (TVCs) and numbers of Enterobactericeae. For this purpose, immediately after the slaughter of cattle carcasses are examinated in 3 stages; including to following the skinning, after washing the carcasses and carcass to be kept in cold storage for 24 hours after. The samples were taken 5 different locations of carcasses including to anal, neck, chest, thigh and shoulder. The results obtained from this study, the hygienic quality of the carcasses are not very good and show that shelf life of the carcasses could not be expected time. Keywords: Slaughter, Cattle Carcasses, Microbiology.