Spreading of Salmonellas during Cattle Slaughtering

The spread of salmonellas during the slaughtering of cattle in the Berlin (West) slaughterhouse was investigated. The slaughterline was divided into 12 areas. During the first examination, which lasted eight months, the equipment and implements at each stage of slaughter, and faeces of cattle were tested. Salmonellas were not isolated from any of the 226 samples of faeces whereas 14 isolations (1.8%) were made from the 768 swabs taken from equipment. Most isolates were obtained within the step of opening the abdominal cavity.
In a second survey 61 (4.3%) of 1392 swab samples and 2 (0.75%) of 267 faeces samples were positive. Of the different processing steps, cutting off the hooves and loosening the skin of legs gave the highest recovery of salmonellas. Moderate recoveries were obtained after opening the abdominal cavity. Removal of head, loosening the skin of head, removing the hide and splitting the breastbone and the carcass did not result in the isolation of the organism. Salmonella anatum was the most common isolate. The same serotypes were isolated from both carcasses and equipment.