Vet World   Vol.16   April-2023  Article-27

Hygiene and biosecurity conditions of initial examination on-spot in Portugal: One step toward game meat safety

Background and Aim: Due to the particularities of the first steps of the game food chain, large game species are shot, bled, and handled in collection points (spot of evisceration and initial examination in the field). These steps of the game meat chain affect the microbiological quality of this type of meat, thus posing a risk to consumers. This study aimed to characterize the collection points in terms of central hygiene and biosecurity procedures/requirements.

Materials and Methods: One survey with 16 questions was applied in 95 hunting areas throughout Portugal. It was a convenience sample obtained by direct visualization on-spot procedures. Four categories were characterized in the survey: Initial examination (performance assiduity and type of operator performing it), hygiene requirements on-spot (floor, ceiling, water, and electricity), biosecurity procedures such on initial examination (use of personal protective equipment as gloves, glasses, mask, and specific clothes), and by-products disposal (destination and packaging of by-products).

Results: Sixty percentage (n = 57) eviscerated the carcasses and performed the initial examination on-spot. Moreover, most of the time (n = 71), the initial examination was carried out by veterinarians. However, the category that showed the best results was those related to the biosecurity procedures on initial examination, mainly with the use of the individual protective material (e.g., regular use of disposal clothes and specific clothes). Concerning the questions about the disposal of by-products, 66 game managers say that this was done correctly (69%), being the majority destination of the inspected carcasses was the burial (64%; n = 47).

Conclusion: This survey demonstrates an immediate need in all this problematic of the standardization of hygiene and biosecurity requirements of the collection points, which requires uniform application of rules. There is a lot of resistance and limitations to the inclusion of these requirements in collection points, due to lack of structural and financial conditions. However, training all those involved in the hunting area (hunters, game managers, authorities, etc.) creating rules that promote hunting food security and setting limits on the microbiological criteria of game meat are hot points to consider in the future. Keywords: food safety, good practices, public health.

Keywords: food safety, good practices, public health.

How to cite this article: Abrantes AC, Ferreira MP, Ruano Z, Vinhas B, Vaz Y, and Vieira-Pinto M (2023) Hygiene and biosecurity conditions of initial examination on-spot in Portugal: One step toward game meat safety, Veterinary World, 16(4): 882-887.

Received: 06-01-2023  Accepted: 15-03-2023     Published online: 29-04-2023

Corresponding author:    E-mail: carolina.psca@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.882-887

Copyright: Abrantes, 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.