Microbiological quality of Australian sheep meat

Microbiological quality of sheep carcasses and boneless sheep meat produced in Australia was surveyed during the period June to November 1998. Sponge samples were collected from 917 carcasses, and meat samples were drilled fr om 467 cartons of frozen boneless meat. Carcass and boneless meat samples w ere respectively collected from 7 and 10 establishments that concentrated o n export, and from 36 and 5 establishments supplying the Australian domesti c market of which 31 were very small plants slaughtering cattle and sheep b ut no more than 1,200 sheep equivalents per week. The mean log total viable counts were 3.55/cm(2) and 3.30/g for carcasses and boneless meat, respect ively. Escherichia coli was detected on 29.2% of carcasses and 24.5% of bon eless meat samples and coagulase-positive staphylococci on 24.1% of carcass es, and 38.6% of boneless meat samples. Salmonella was detected on 0.1% of carcasses and 1.3% of boneless meat samples. E, coli O157:H7 was recovered from 0.7% of carcasses and 1.3% of boneless sheep meat. There were statisti cally significant differences between establishment types for some microbio logical criteria, although there were no significant differences in prevale nce of Salmonella or E. coli O157:H7 between establishment types. While the re were differences in sampling and microbiological techniques between this study and another conducted in 1993 to 1994 that require detailed consider ation, there were small but significant improvements in several microbiolog ical criteria for boneless meat. While data that would allow for comparison of carcass data were not gathered, it is unlikely that improvements in the microbiological quality of boneless sheep meat could accrue without improv ements to carcasses.