Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026
Swine Model of Biofilm Infection and Invisible Wounds
Published on: June 16, 2023
Comparison of swabbing and destructive methods for microbiological pig carcass sampling
1Belgian National Reference Laboratory in Food Microbiology for the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain, University of Liege, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Food Sciences, Microbiology, Liege, Belgium. yasmine.ghafir@afsca.be
Aims:
To compare the Belgian swabbing sampling method for pig carcasses with the reference destructive method with regard to Escherichia coli and aerobic plate counts, Salmonella and Campylobacter prevalence and their relationship.
Methods And Results:
Recovery was significantly lower for the swabbing method and corresponded to a recovery of 36% for E. coli counts and 81% for aerobic plate counts in comparison with the destructive method. There was no significant difference between the swabbing and destructive sampling methods for the prevalence of Salmonella or Campylobacter. A higher median for E. coli counts was detected for samples where Salmonella or Campylobacter were detected. The same association was also observed between the median for aerobic plate counts and the presence of Campylobacter.
Conclusions:
The method of swabbing used, covering 600 cm2 on each half-pig carcass, is efficient for the sampling of pig carcasses in comparison with the reference destructive method.
Significance And Impact Of The Study:
This study describes an efficient method for microbiological pig carcass sampling. The Belgian swabbing method should continue to be used to allow the follow up of bacterial contamination in the Belgian meat production chain.
