Evaluation of Three Carcass Surface Microbial Sampling Techniques

Three carcass surface microbial sampling techniques were evaluated: a double swab, an excision and an agar sausage technique. In each instance, a sampling area of 6,42 cm² was used. For the double swab technique, two sterile dry swabs were used. A sterile meat borer was used to cut out the area of 6,42 cm² for the excision technique. For the agar sausage technique, 50-cm³ medical syringes were used to take impression plate samples. All the samples obtained with the different techniques were subjected to serial dilutions, whereafter they were spread-plated in duplicate on prepoured plates. Results of the study indicated that there was a significant difference (P<0,05) between the three techniques. The excision technique was the most reliable while the agar sausage technique had a higher coefficient of determination (r² value) with the excision technique than did the swab technique.