STUDY ON THE PREVALENCE OF THERMOPHILIC CAMPYLOBACTER SPECIES IN SHEEP AND GOAT CARCASSES AT HELIMEX EXPORT ABATTOIR
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2008-06
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Abstract
Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli are frequent worldwide causes of food-borne gastroenteritis in humans. A study on the prevalence of thermophilic Campylobacter species from the carcasses of slaughtered sheep and goats was undertaken at Hashim Nuru Jiru Ethiopia livestock and meat import-exporter (HELMIX) export abattoir in Debre-Zeit, Ethiopia from November 2007 to April 2008. A total of 218 sheep and 180 goat carcasses (398 total carcasses) were examined from carcass swabs taken from crutch, abdomen, thorax and breast areas. From each slaughtered animal, carcass swab was taken only from one of these sites on the carcass but each swabbing site was swabbed for three different operations in the abattoir namely before evisceration, after evisceration and after washing. A total of 654 swab samples were collected from 218 sheep carcasses comprised of 56 crutch swabs, 49 abdomen swabs, 50 thorax swabs and 63 breast swabs before evisceration, after evisceration and after washing. Similarly, 540 swabs from 180 goat carcasses were collected consisting of 52 crutch swabs, 46 abdomen swabs, 42 thorax swabs and 40 breast swabs from each of the three slaughter operations. Thus from the three operations a total of 1194 swabs were analyzed. Bacteriological analysis of the samples was conducted in the Microbiology laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Debre-Zeit following the techniques recommended by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, 2002).
From a total of 398 carcasses examined, 40 carcasses were positive for Campylobacter with contamination rate of 10%. Per contamination rate with either C. jejuni or C. coli were 10.6% (n=218) and 9.4% (n=180) for sheep and goat carcasses, respectively. However, statistically significant difference was not detected in the rate of carcass contamination between sheep and goat carcasses (p=0.72). The most prevalent thermophilic Campylobacter species recovered from the sheep and goat carcasses was C. jejuni accounting for 7.3% (n=398), followed by C. coli 2.7% (n= 398). Out of the 40 positive samples the proportion of the Campylobacter species was 72.5% and 27.5% for C. jejuni and C. coli respectively. This variation in the isolation rate between the two Campylobacter species was statistically significant (P=0.003). Though there was no statistically significant difference (P=0.57) in the rate of carcass contamination among the four swabbing sites, the highest contamination rate was observed in the breast area at a rate of 12.6% (n=103) followed by abdomen with contamination rate of 11.6% (n=95). Highest rate of carcass contamination was observed after evisceration as compared to prior evisceration and after
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washing (p=0.000). Washing of the carcass did not reduce carcass contamination in the slaughtered sheep (2=0.18; P=0.68), however there was a substantial reduction in the level of carcass contamination after washing in goat carcasses ((2=10.72; P=0.001).
The present study revealed the existence of severe cross contamination during slaughter operations particularly during evisceration. Carcass contamination by Campylobacter can be reduced, and thus its public health impact, through good hygienic practices in the abattoir.
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Keywords
Abattoir, C. jejuni, C. coli, Debre-Zeit, Ethiopia, Sheep and goat carcass