Incidence of Acinetobacter spp. and other gram-negative, oxidase-negative bacteria in fresh and spoiled ground beef.

A total of 1,409 gram-negative bacterial colonies were randomly selected from 19 samples of fresh and spoiled ground beef plated on six media. Only 137 (9.7%) were oxidase negative, and 20 (14.6%) of these were Acinetobacter spp., all of which were recovered from fresh meat samples. The importance of this group in both fresh and spoiled beef is less than is generally believed.