Evaluation of Sanitary Quality of Goat Meat Obtained from Slaughter Yards and Meat Stalls at Late Market Hours

The microbiological investigation was conducted to determine the level of contamination of goat meat processed by butchers in slaughter yards and meat stalls and also at different body regions such as neck, brisket and thigh during the period of July to November 2007 in the Department of Microbiology and Hygiene, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh, Bangladesh. A total number of 36 meat samples were collected equally from three slaughter yards and meat stalls namely Koshaibari, Mymensingh town and BAU campus, each containing 12 samples. Out of these 12 samples, four samples from brisket region, four samples from neck region, and four samples from thigh region were taken. After collection, bacteriological analysis of the samples were performed to asses the selected microbial attributes such as TVC, TCC and TSC in goat meat cuts of different sources by using Plate Count (PC) agar, MacConkey (MC) agar and Staphylococcal Media (SM-110) medium to find out the sanitary quality of goat meat. The mean values of TVC on slaughter yards and meat stalls were log 6.03 and log 6.53 respectively, whereas the TCC showed log 4.85 and log 3.82 respectively and that of TSC were 3.31 and 3.82 respectively. The mean values of TVC in brisket, neck and thigh regions of slaughter yards were log 6.11, log 6.01, log 6.31 and in meat stalls were log 6.48, log 6.30, log 6.84 respectively, whereas the TCC values of slaughter yards showed log 4.77, log 4.36, log 5.12 and meat stalls log 4.94, log 4.68, log 5.42 respectively. In case of TSC values, the mean values were log 3.83, log 3.07, log 4.06 and log 3.96, log 3.37, log 4.22 respectively. The result demonstrates the fact that the unhygienic and poor sanitary conditions under which the meat and meat products are handled and processed are not acceptable from sanitary point of view. The statistical analysis showed that TVC and TCC obtained from meat samples of different markets and different regions of the carcass exhibited regional variation significantly (P<0.01), whereas TSC did not present any remarkable regional variation. A significant correlation in TVC and TCC was found (P<0.01) and similar correlation was also recorded in TCC and TSC (P<0.01), but it is interesting to note that there was no significant correlation in between TVC and TSC.