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Cooking and drying as effective mechanisms in limiting the zoonotic effect of Mycobacterium bovis in beef

ABSTRACT
For this study 48 non-infected muscle, lymphatic and visceral bovine tissue samples were
collected from an approved red meat abattoir and spiked with 8 ×107cfu/m of M. bovis. The
different spiked samples were subjected to cooking and drying (drying through the process
of biltong-making) processes in a controlled laboratory environment. Mycobacterial
isolates confirmed as M. bovis by means of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were observed
in 17 of a total of 576 samples that were exposed to the secondary processing method of
cooking. The study showed that not only can M. bovis survive the cooking process but the
survival of the bacterium will be determined by its unique adaptive changes to the
surrounding composition of the environment. The results for the samples exposed to the
drying process (n = 96) did not show any growth, suggesting that the process of biltong
production as used in this study is likely to render infected meat safe for human consumption.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1001240
Date01 June 2008
CreatorsBekke, JL, van der Merwe, M, van der Merwe, P, Michel AL
PublisherJournal of the South African Veterinary Association
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText
FormatPdf
RightsJournal of the South African Veterinary Association

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