effect of seasons on microbial contamination counts in sheep and goat carcasses slaughtered in traditional slaughterhouses of tehran province.

this study was conducted to investigate the bacterial contamination of small ruminant carcasses in traditional slaughterhouses of tehran province, in summer and winter seasons. 30 sheep and goat carcasses from slaughterhouses of rey, shahreyar and eslamshahr were evaluated. در انتهای خط کشتار و قبل از مرحله توزیع، از لاشه دامها نمونه برداری شد. randomly samples were taken at the end of the slaughter line and before distribution of the carcasses and transfer to laboratory under cold and sterile condition. microbial characteristic of carcasses such as total count(tc), coliform (co), staphylococcus aureus (sta), mold and yeast (my), psychrophile (psy) and escherichia coli (ec) and salmonella (sal) were tested. results showed that the amount of carcass microbial load was significantly different between seasons and with decreasing temperature, microbial contamination of carcasses was decreased. tc, co, sta, my and psy were 5.35 ± 0.14, 3.30 ± 0.20, 2.36 ± 0.12, 1.64 ± 0.15 and 4.25 ± 0.20 logcfu/g respectively in summer, where as these contamination were 4.83 ± 0.14, 2.07 ±0.20, 2.03 ±0.12, 1.17 ±0.15 and 3.82 ± 0.20 logcfu/g respectively in winter. sheep and goat carcasses had no salmonella, but e. coli was observed in different seasons.