Lamb Washing as a Way to Reduce Bacterial Contamination in Carcass

Abstract

In Uruguay, the incidence of ovine carcasses contamination with extraneous is significant: every two carcasses, one is contaminated. Truck characteristics, type of sheep breeds and commercialization with wool contribute to increases the problem. The aim of this work was to study with complete random design with factorial treatments arrangement the effect of truck position (upper or lower level) and washing system with pressurized cold water (no washing: NW, arrival washing: AW or pre-slaughter washing: PSW) on contamination aerobic bacteria, Enterobacteriacea and E. coli) of 80 lambs. The interaction truck position x AW affected (p = 0.05) aerobic bacteria (4.48; 3.97; 4.52 and 4.61 log 10 colonies number in lambs transported in the upper level of the truck, washed and not washed, or transported in the lower level, washed or not washed, respectively). The interaction truck position x PSW affected (p = 0.04) Enterobacteriacea (2.76; 2.25; 2.53 and 2.53, log 10 colonies number, in lambs in the upper level, washed and not washed, or in the lower level, washed or not washed, respectively) and affected (p = 0.0001) E. coli (324; 59; 110 y 253 number of colonies/cm2 , in lambs in the upper level washed and not washed or in the lower level washed or not washed, respectively). The results suggest that washing lambs is justified only when lambs were transported in the inferior floor of the truck, particularly for E. coli decontamination. Only the lambs transported in upper floor and not washed showed adequate microorganism counts.