The effect of abattoir design on aerial contamination levels and the relationship between aerial and carcass contamination levels in two Irish beef abattoirs

This study investigated the relationship between aerial and beef carcass contamination and examined the effect of abattoir design and time of slaughter on the aerobiology of slaughter operations in two commercial beef abattoirs. A dual head impaction air sampler and swab samples taken from 100 cm² of the brisket of beef carcasses, were used to examine Total Viable, Psychrotrophic, Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonad numbers. In Abattoir A, with a straight-line single-floor design, airborne bacterial numbers were generally lower in the “clean” than in the “dirty” area of the plant. In Abattoir B, which had a serpentine two-floor design, this trend was generally reversed. Both abattoirs displayed a similar pattern in airborne counts over the production day, with numbers generally being lower before slaughter, than in the morning and afternoon. Correlations between aerial and carcass contamination for each of the bacterial groups on the slaughter line in Abattoirs A and B were poor. The data suggest that it is difficult to make a definitive evaluation of the relationship between aerial and carcass contamination levels. Methods currently used to determine the relationship between aerial and carcass contamination need to be reconsidered.