The occurrence of Escherichia coli O157 in/on faeces, carcasses and fresh meats from cattle I. Nastasijevic a,1 , R. Mitrovic a,2 , S. Buncic b, * a Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Kacanskog 13, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia b Department of Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture Faculty, University of Novi Sad, Trg D. Obradovica 8, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia article info Article history: Received 23 April 2008 Received in revised form 9 November 2008 Accepted 15 December 2008 Keywords: Escherichia coli O157 Beef Faeces Carcass Trimmings Fermented sausages abstract The aim of this study was to investigate whether Escherichia coli O157 is present in/on raw beef in Serbia. Correlated faecal and carcasses samples from 115 slaughtered cattle plus 26 uncorrelated carcass sam- ples were examined. E. coli O157 detection and identification was performed using selective enrichment and immunomagnetic separation followed by selective media-plating and biochemical tests. The E. coli O157 occurrences were 2.6% in faeces and 2.8% on carcasses. The E. coli O157 occurrences were 0%, 6.2% and 2.1%, respectively, in 106 samples of beef trimmings, 48 samples of minced beef and 48 samples of batter intended for production of raw, fermented sausages. The results confirmed that faecal contamination is very important for the occurrence of E. coli O157 on beef carcasses. Furthermore, the present study revealed occasional presence of the pathogen in raw materials used for producing raw, fermented beef sausages. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Escherichia coli O157 is an important foodborne pathogen, a member of the so-called enterohaemorrhagic or verocytotoxigenic E. coli (EHEC, VTEC). Since the early 1980s, E. coli O157 have caused a number of human infections (outbreaks or sporadic cases) via foods of animal origin, particularly those originating from cattle e.g. minced/comminuted beef ( Anonymous, 1994; Anonymous, 1997; Keene et al., 1997; Pennington, 1998; Williams et al., 2000) and dairy products (Bielaszewska et al., 1997; Curnow, 1999; Morgan et al., 1993; O‘Brien & Smith, 1999). Cattle are the major reservoir of the pathogen which is carried in and excreted from their gastrointestinal tract without any symptoms of disease (Chapman, Cerdan Malo, Ellin, Ashton, & Harkin, 2001; Hancock et al., 1998; Renter, Sargeant, Oberst, & Samadpour, 2003). Faeces and hides of cattle are considered to be the main sources of E. coli O157 contamination of carcasses during slaughter (Aslam et al., 2003; Barkocy-Gallagher et al., 2003; Elder et al., 2000). The prevalence of E. coli O157 in faeces of cattle at evisceration can vary widely e.g. from 0.0% to 27.8% (Bonardi, Maggi, Pizzin, Morabito, & Caprioli, 2001; Elder et al., 2000; Heuvelink et al., 1998; Minihan, O‘Mahony, Whyte, & Collins, 2003; Ransom et al., 2002; Tutenel et al., 2002). E. coli O157 occurrences on hides of cattle at slaughter in different countries also vary widely e.g. from 4.5% (Barham et al., 2002) to 56% (Tutenel, Pierard, Van Hoof, & De Zutter, 2003) with occurrence in Serbia reported as 28.2% (Nastasijevic, Mitrovic, & Buncic, 2008). With respect to hide, it is important to note that extensive between animals cross-contamination with E. coli O157 takes place before dressing of slaughtered cattle i.e. during the lai- rage-to-stunning phase, through animal–animal and/or animal– environment–animal contact (Collis et al., 2004). Contamination of carcass meat with E. coli O157 can occur dur- ing dressing; primarily during the skinning but also during the evisceration phase. Reported E. coli O157 occurrences on beef car- casses vary widely, from 1.1% to 43.4% (Elder et al., 2000; Lahti, Ruoho, Rantala, Hanninen, & Honkanen-Buzalski, 2003; McEvoy et al., 2003; Minihan et al., 2003; Tutenel et al., 2003). In beef sam- ples at retail level, reported E. coli O157 occurrences usually range from 0% to 9% (Brooks et al., 2001; Doyle & Schoeni, 1987; Suth- ienkul et al., 1990; Tutenel et al., 2003; Vuddhakul et al., 2000) although an exceptionally high occurrence of 36% was also pub- lished (Radu et al., 1998). Published data on E. coli O157 prevalence in raw materials intended for producing raw, fermented beef sau- sages are scarce; an occurrence of 0.12% in minced beef at meat processing level was reported (Vernozy-Rozand et al., 2002). Presently, there are no published data on whether, and with which frequency, E. coli O157 is present on/in raw beef in Serbia. Therefore, the main aim of the present study was to obtain the first 0309-1740/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2008.12.007 * Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +381 21 4853 440. E-mail address: buncic_sava@hotmail.com (S. Buncic). 1 Tel./fax: +381 64 2181 654. 2 Tel./fax: +381 64 1757 858. Meat Science 82 (2009) 101–105 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Meat Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/meatsci