Vet World Vol.13 July-2020 Article-16
Research Article
Veterinary World, 13(7): 1363-1371
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.1363-1371
Microbiological quality of beef, mutton, and water from different abattoirs in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
2. Department of Agriculture and Animal Health, University of South Africa, Florida Campus, Johannesburg, 1709, South Africa.
Background and Aim: Abattoir processes from skinning, evisceration, to chilling usually lead to meat contamination by foodborne pathogens. Hence, continual microbial surveillance of slaughter carcasses by veterinary public health officials is key to preventing contamination and outbreak of meat-related foodborne diseases. This study was conducted to determine the Enterobacteriaceae count and aerobic plate count (APC) and to detect Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. in meat and water from selected slaughter facilities.
Materials and Methods: Retrospective data (n=100) collected in 2017 by the Provincial Veterinary Department of the Eastern Cape Province from abattoirs and prospective survey data of meat (n=50) collected in 2018 from abattoirs in the Eastern Cape Province were utilized in this study. APC and Enterobacteriaceae were enumerated from the samples. In addition, Salmonella and E. coli were isolated from samples using selective media.
Results: The APC in both retrospective and prospective studies for all samples ranged between 2 and 4.50 log CFU/cm2; similar counts of 2-4.00 log CFU/cm2 were recorded for Enterobacteriaceae. No significant difference (p>0.05) for APC and Enterobacteriaceae count across all meat types was noted. Salmonella and E. coli were detected in 50% of beef. E. coli was not detected from mutton, but Salmonella was found in 66.7%. Moreover, 91.7% of the water samples had E. coli, but none had Salmonella.
Conclusion: The levels of Enterobacteriaceae and APC observed in meat satisfy regulatory conditions outlined by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, South Africa and show that meat produced from these abattoirs is of acceptable microbial quality. However, the quality of water used in the abattoirs does not meet the requirements set by the government, and contributes to contamination of meat produced in the abattoirs under study. Therefore, we recommend that sources of water be continuously investigated to eliminate or reduce the risk of contamination of meat processed in the abattoirs. Keywords: contamination, foodborne pathogens, hygiene, meat spoilage, water quality.
Keywords: contamination, foodborne pathogens, hygiene, meat spoilage, water quality.
How to cite this article: Ncoko P, Jaja IF, Oguttu JW (2020) Microbiological quality of beef, mutton, and water from different abattoirs in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, Veterinary World, 13(7): 1363-1371.
Received: 20-10-2019 Accepted: 20-05-2020 Published online: 18-07-2020
Corresponding author: Ishmael Festus Jaja E-mail: ijaja@ufh.ac.za
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.1363-1371
Copyright: Ncoko, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.