Abstract
<em>Salmonella</em> and pathogenic <em>Escherichia coli</em> are known to be the major bacterial agents responsible for human foodborne infections attributable to meat. A review of the specialized literature was carried out to identify the risk factors for bovine meat contamination by these pathogens from the cattle farm to meat consumption. Animal stress during transport to the slaughterhouse and the duration of the lairage period were identified as the key factors influencing the faecal excretion of <em>Salmonella</em> and pathogenic <em>E. coli</em> as well as cattle contamination prior to slaughter. At the abattoir level, hides and visceral contents appear to be the main sources of pathogenic bacteria that contaminate carcasses along the meat production chain. Finally, temperature abuses during distribution and meat contamination by infected handlers were found to be important contributors to the post-slaughter contamination of bovine meat. The findings of this study indicate that efficient management of human food borne infections attributable to bovine meat requires an integrated application of control measures involving all actors along the meat chain, namely slaughterhouses, meat processing plants, distributors and consumers.
Highlights
Meat is consumed in different parts of the world as a source of animal proteins (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2013) and its chemical composition is favourable for the proliferation of a wide range of microbial populations which makes raw meat to be one of the vehicles of foodborne infections in humans (Doulgeraki, Ercolini, Villani, & Nychas, 2012; Scallan et al, 2011)
The findings of this study indicate that efficient management of human food borne infections attributable to bovine meat requires an integrated application of control measures involving all actors along the meat chain, namely slaughterhouses, meat processing plants, distributors and consumers
Even if differences in the sampling strategy and analytical methods used in different studies do not allow an accurate comparison of the prevalence of pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella in meat amongst different countries, it appears that these two pathogens are detectable worldwide in significant proportions in meat in general, and in bovine meat
Summary
Meat is consumed in different parts of the world as a source of animal proteins (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2013) and its chemical composition is favourable for the proliferation of a wide range of microbial populations which makes raw meat to be one of the vehicles of foodborne infections in humans (Doulgeraki, Ercolini, Villani, & Nychas, 2012; Scallan et al, 2011). Even if differences in the sampling strategy and analytical methods used in different studies do not allow an accurate comparison of the prevalence of pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella in meat amongst different countries, it appears that these two pathogens are detectable worldwide in significant proportions in meat in general, and in bovine meat. The prevalence of VTEC in different Member States in 2011 was reported to be higher in bovine meat compared to meat from other animal species.This could be probably due to the fact that the enteric carriage of pathogenic E. coli is mostly observed in cattle than in other animal species (Mainil & Daube, 2005). In Ireland, VTEC was detected in 1% of 291 bovine carcass samples, while no positive finding was reported from 134 sheep carcass samples (EFSA and ECDC, 2013b)
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