Assessment of the microbiological conditions of red-meat carcasses from bacterial counts recovered by sampling via excision or swabbing with cotton wool

Samples from 240 carcasses were collected from four animal species (porcine, ovine, bovine and equine). Two samples were taken from each carcass, one using the excision method (EX) and the other the wet–dry swabbing method (SW). Eight areas from each carcass were sampled. Most of the samples obtained by SW revealed total aerobic viable counts (TVC) levels of between 3.1 and 4.0 log CFU cm⁻², while most of the values corresponding to excision were located between 4.1 and 5.0 log CFU cm⁻². Moreover, Enterobacteriaceae (EC) counts were only detected above 3.0 log CFU cm⁻² in 0.85% of the carcasses when the samples were collected by swabbing, while the excision method revealed that 13.75% of the carcasses presented EC greater than 3.0 log CFU cm⁻². TVC and EC by EX revealed statistically significant differences compared to SW, while no significant linear relationship was found between carcass surface bacterial counts obtained by SW and EX.