Abstract: The poultry abattoir industry continues to grow and contribute significantly to the gross domestic product in many countries. The industry expects working shifts of eight to eleven hours, during which workers are exposed to occupational hazards which include physical hazards ranging from noise, vibration, exposure to cold and ergonomic stress from manual, repetitive tasks that require force. A PubMed, Medline and Science Direct online database search, using specific keywords was conducted and the results confirmed that physical and ergonomic hazards impact on abattoir processing workers health, with harm not only to workers’ health but also as an economic burden due to the loss of their livelihoods and the need for treatment and compensation in the industry. This review endeavours to highlight the contribution poultry processing plays in the development of physical agents and ergonomic stress related occupational diseases in poultry abattoir processing workers. The impact includes noise-induced hearing loss, increased blood pressure, menstrual and work related upper limb disorders. These are summarised as a quick reference guide for poultry abattoir owners, abattoir workers, poultry associations, occupational hygienists and medical practitioners to assist in the safer management of occupational health in poultry abattoirs.

The usage of antimicrobials either as performance enhancers or for prophylactic and therapeutic purposes in food animals, such as chickens, increases the prevalence of antimicrobial drug resistance among enteric bacteria of these animals. This may be transferred to people working with such animals, e.g. abattoir workers, or the products arising from these animals. In this study antimicrobial drug resistance was investigated for selected enteric bacteria from broilers raised on feed supplemented with antimicrobial growth enhancers, and the people who carry out evisceration, washing and packing of intestines in a high throughput poultry abattoir in Gauteng, South Africa. Poultry farms (n=6) were purposively selected on the basis of allowing for sampling of farms from more than one grow out cycle. Broiler carcases (n=100) were randomly selected per farm five minutes after slaughter and sampled by incising caecae from the rest of the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT). The ends of each caecae were tied off to prevent contamination and to enhance the culturing of anaerobic bacteria. In the laboratory, caecal contents were selectively cultured for Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecium, E. faecalis, and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). Salmonella enterica was isolated using pre-enrichment followed by selective culture. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) micro broth dilution test as prescribed by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute USA (CLSI), previously known as National Committee of Clinical Laboratories (NCCL), was used to determine the susceptibility of the isolates to the following antimicrobials: vancomycin, virginiamycin, doxycycline, trimethoprim, sulphamethoxazole, ampicillin, bacitracin, enrofloxacin, erythromycin, fosfomycin, ceftriaxone and nalidixic acid. The same was done on the faeces of 29 abattoir workers exposed to potentially resistant micro-organisms from broilers and 28 persons used as controls, who had not been equally exposed to potentially resistant micro-organisms from broilers. Both of the human populations had not been treated with antimicrobials within three months prior to sampling. Statistical analysis was done by Fisher’s exact test. No salmonellae and VRE on VRE selective agar (Oxoid UK) were cultured. Two Clostridium perfringens, 168 E. coli, 20 E. faecalis and 96 E. faecium isolates from the broiler caecae were cultured. Fifty four (28 and 26) E. coli, 24 (21 and 3) E. faecalis and 12 (2 and 10) E. faeciumfrom humans were cultured. The figures in brackets represent the abattoir workers and human controls respectively. The majority of E. coli isolates from broilers had MIC’s above the cut off point for the antimicrobials tested. Low resistance was observed among broiler enterococci isolates to vancomycin, virginiamycin, trimethoprim and ampicillin. A comparison of the median MIC’s of isolates from abattoir workers (packers) and the control group revealed significant differences in the median MIC’s for the following antimicrobials; E. faecalis: enrofloxacin (p=0.019). E. faecium, trimethoprim (p=0.01), enrofloxacin (p=0.029) and erythromycin (p=0.03). E. coli: trimethoprim (p=0.012) and ampicillin (p=0.036). Use of antimicrobials as feed additives causes resistance among enteric bacteria from broilers. Significant differences between median MIC’s of abattoir workers (packers) and the control group were observed for therapeutics and not growth enhancers. There was a tendency for isolates from abattoir workers to have a higher median MIC and a higher number of resistant isolates as compared to the control group. In spite of the fact that there was a high level of resistance in the enteric commensal bacteria of broiler caecae, an association could not be shown with that of the human enteric bacteria. It could not be concluded that a significant AMR transfer to poultry abattoir workers existed. This notwithstanding, both the control and experimental group, carried levels of resistance among their enteric bacteria that could be described as being high. / Dissertation (MSc (Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Paraclinical Sciences / unrestricted

Published Article / The Meat Safety Act, Act 40 of 2000 compels all registered abattoirs in South Africa to implement and maintain a Hygiene Management System (HMS) to ensure the safe processing of meat. The HMS is a basic food safety system that focuses on process standards that are designed to reduce the risk of contamination of meat and meat products during processing. Part of the Poultry regulations provide the requirements of HMS and were published by government on the 24th of February 2006. However, no guidelines were published or made available to poultry abattoir operators on how to interpret and implement the requirements of the HMS. The aim of this research was to determine the extent of HMS implementation at poultry abattoirs in Gauteng. The intention was to identify short comings, if any, within implemented HMSs with the intention of promoting compliance. This was achieved by developing common themes from research audit findings. These themes were then used to suggest critical areas that should be addressed during the development of an HMS implementation guideline document.

Submitted by Cássia Santos (cassia.bcufg@gmail.com) on 2016-09-16T12:46:24Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Eder de Sousa Fernandes - 2016.pdf: 785005 bytes, checksum: 80572975acfc1619c4fa8d9f9a096921 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-09-16T13:25:06Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Eder de Sousa Fernandes - 2016.pdf: 785005 bytes, checksum: 80572975acfc1619c4fa8d9f9a096921 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-16T13:25:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Eder de Sousa Fernandes - 2016.pdf: 785005 bytes, checksum: 80572975acfc1619c4fa8d9f9a096921 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-20 / In order to characterize the possible variations in the chemical composition of the viscera meal was carried out this work to study the possible variables that can cause variations and affect the final quality of poultry by products focusing on their use in the feed industry broilers. For this experiment was chosen a large commercial poultry abattoir processing viscera immediately after slaughter of birds in a processing plant poultry meal, unit is located in central Goiás state. The samples were collected and analyzed weekly for a period of twelve months between June 2014 and June 2015. in order to characterize the possible variations in the chemical composition of the viscera flour were studied the effect of temperature, pressure, humidity, weight and processing time and to assess the flours obtained the parameters were qualitative tests (acidity index, peroxide index and Eber test), the proximal evaluation (ether extract, crude protein, moisture, calcium and phosphorus), and this grading tests were performed, color texture and odor. For such an assessment adopted the statistical program R using the statistical method of Pearson correlations. / Com o objetivo de caracterizar as possíveis variações na composição química das farinhas de vísceras foi realizado este trabalho para estudar as possíveis variáveis que podem provocar variações e afetar a qualidade final da farinha de vísceras de aves tendo como foco a sua utilização na indústria de rações para frangos de corte. Para tal experimento foi escolhido um abatedouro avícola comercial de grande porte que processa as vísceras imediatamente após o abate das aves em uma planta processadora de farinha de vísceras, unidade esta localizada na região central do estado de Goiás. As amostras foram coletadas e analisadas semanalmente durante um período de doze meses compreendido entre junho de 2014 e junho de 2015. Para caracterizar as possíveis variações na composição química das farinhas de vísceras foram estudas o efeito da temperatura, pressão, umidade, peso e tempo de processamento e para avaliar as farinhas obtidas os parâmetros utilizados foram os testes qualitativos (índice de acidez, índice de peróxido e teste de Éber), a avaliação proximal (extrato etéreo, proteína bruta, umidade, cálcio e fósforo), além deste foram realizados testes de granulometria, cor textura e odor. Para tal avaliação adotou-se o programa estatístico R utilizando-se o método estatístico de correlações de Pearson.