A survey on hygiene management for raw by-products of beef in Gwangju area, Korea

Abstract

A total of 301 samples of bovine liver, spleen and omasum were collected from butchers and restaurants in Gwangju, Korea during 2012 and all samples were subjected to bacteriological examination and antibiotic residues. Also, this study was performed to survey the consciousness for hygiene of livestock workers who are handling bovine by-products in Gwangju. The detection rate of aerobic plate count (APC) was higher in summer than in other seasons in all by-products (P=0.000). The detection rate of E. coli count was lower in the liver than the spleen and omasum (P=0.000). Twenty four of the samples (8.0%) were contaminated with S. aureus while one spleen sample (0.3%) was contaminated with L. monocytogenes and finally 10 (3.3%) of the liver and omasum samples were contaminated with Cl. perfringens. Five of the twenty-four S. aureus isolates harbored enterotoxin gene. However, the cpe gene of Cl. perfingens was not detected among any of the 10 isolates. Antibiotic residues were not detected in the liver samples. The consciousness survey's results showed that most of them (58.8%) were safe.