Background: Bovine cysticercosis is one of the most important parasitic diseases caused by the metacestode stage of the human tapeworm Taenia saginata. The public health and economic consequences of this parasite may be considerable due to downgrading and the condemnation of carcasses. Therefore, this survey was designed to estimate the prevalence, economic losses and food safety importance of ...

Ninety-eight commercial crossbred lambs, average weight 55.1 kg (+/- 4.95), were used to evaluate bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) as a prediction method for fat-free tissue from live lambs and lamb carcasses. Lambs were transported to the abattoir, restricted from feed for 10 h, weighed (LWt), and measured for body resistance (Rs, ohms), body reactance (Xc, ohms), and distance between de...

The U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) tests sets of samples of selected raw meat and poultry products for Salmonella to ensure that federally inspected establishments meet performance standards defined in the pathogen reduction-hazard analysis and critical control point system (PR-HACCP) final rule. In the present report, sample set results are described and associations between se...

The aim of the pilot study was to evaluate slaughter characteristics and carcass composition of indigenous long fat tailed sheep and Small East African goats purchased from the auction markets slaughtered at 1.5 to 2 yrs of age and 20 kg to 25 kg live weight. The animals were slaughtered according to halal standard procedures. The left half carcasses were jointed into eight wholesale joints, an...

The effect of rapid chilling of pork carcasses on bacterial populations was examined. Two regimes of rapid chilling were applied: treatment 1 (at –31°C in the first 3 h of chilling, and then at 2–4°C till 8 h post-mortem) and treatment 2 (at –31°C in the first 3 h of chilling, and then at 2–4°C till 24 h post-mortem). Microbiological sampling of pork carcasses was obtained by swabbing. Swab sam...

There is a demand by certain ethnic consumer groups in the United Kingdom for skin-on, singed carcasses, primarily from older sheep, but their production is illegal under current EU legislation. The aim of this study was to devise a protocol to produce carcasses having the desired 'smoked' colour and odour and an acceptable microbiology. A successful result could form the basis of a case to rev...

Trisodium phosphate (TSP) has been reported to decrease the recovery of salmonellae from processed poultry carcasses. It has been suggested that the high pH and detergent-like properties of TSP solutions are responsible for the reduction in salmonellae recovery. This project was conducted to determine if controlling pH during salmonellae pre-enrichment alters the effect of TSP on salmonellae re...

The prevalence and serogroups of Salmonella recovered following air chilling were determined for both enriched neck skin and matching enriched whole carcass samples. Commercially processed and eviscerated carcasses were air chilled to 4°C before removing the neck skin (8.3 g) and stomaching in 83 mL buffered peptone water. The remaining carcass was subjected to whole carcass enrichment in 500 m...

The effect of scalding and chilling procedures was evaluated on carcass and breast meat weight and yield in broilers. On 4 separate weeks (trials), broilers were subjected to feed withdrawal, weighed, and then stunned and bled in 4 sequential batches (n = 16 broilers/batch, 64 broilers/trial). In addition, breast skin was collected before scalding, after scalding, and after defeathering for pro...