ICAMS 2018 – 7 th International Conference on Advanced Materials and Systems https://doi.org/10.24264/icams-2018.VIII.4 A SURVEY STUDY TO DETECT PROBLEMS ON SALTED HIDES AND SKINS PINAR CAGLAYAN 1 , MERAL BIRBIR 1 , ANTONIO VENTOSA 2 1 Marmara University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Biology Department, Istanbul,Turkey, pinar.caglayan@marmara.edu.tr 2 University of Sevilla, Pharmacy Faculty, Microbiology and Parasitology Department, Spain Some problems originated from raw hides/skins can not be recovered by other steps in leather processing and affect adversely quality of leather. To detect these problems, a questionnaire containing 14 questions was prepared and applied to 15 leather technicians working in different tanneries of Tuzla and Corlu Leather Industrial Zones, Turkey. According to questionnaire results, numbers of tanneries used cattle hides were higher than those of goat and sheep skins. Hides/skins cured in different countries were used in leather industry. Storage period of salted hides/skins was not long and most of samples were processed between one and six months. Storage temperature of tanneries were ranged from 0oC to 30°C. Dry salting was used mostly by tanneries. Fairly high percentage of tanneries used only salt in preservation of hides/skins. Problems such as hair loosening, bacterial and fungal growth, bad odor, red heat, holes, stains on hides/skins and loss of hide/skin elasticity were reported by technicians. Most of problems encountered in leather industry were related to bacterial and fungal growth and their activities. Our microbiological studies results supported that presence of red heat, bad odor, hair slip, stains, holes on the hides/skins and loss of leather elasticity was closely related to microbial growth and activities. Keywords: Leather industry, tanneries, questionnaire INTRODUCTION Raw hides and skins, which are the most valuable by-product of meat industry, are cured with salt after the animal is slaughtered (Vankar and Dwivedi, 2009). As known, animals contain normal flora of microorganisms and contaminant microorganisms found in the air, soil, water, animal feeds, dust, barn, pasture and feces (Birbir and Ilgaz, 1996; Birbir et al., 2016; Oppong et al., 2006). When the animal is alive, most of these microorganisms have little effect on hides and skins, but after flaying process these microorganisms use proteins, fats and carbohydrates to grow rapidly and digest hide and skin substances. Traditionally, sodium chloride is used for preservation of animal hides and skins as a curing agent which is routinely applied in leather industry (Vankar and Dwivedi, 2009). In this method, fresh hides and skins are cured with 40-50% concentration of sodium chloride, and the moisture content of hides and skins is reduced to 40-48% (Bienkiewickz, 1983; Kanagaraj et al., 2001; Bailey, 2003). Although salt is used for curing process, the experimental results of other investigations showed that it contaminates hides and skins with halotolerant microorganisms, slightly halophilic bacteria, moderately halophilic bacteria, extremely halophilic archaea and fungi. The salt samples obtained from Sereflikochisar Salt Lake, which is used in leather industry for curing hides and skins, were examined by Birbir et al. (2002). The researchers determined diverse halophilic bacterial and archaeal communities in the curing salt (Birbir et al., 2002). In the study of Berber et al. (2010), archaeal and bacterial populations were detected on curing salt samples, salted hides, soaked hides, soaking liquors. In another study, various Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial species were isolated from salted hides by Aslan and Birbir (2011, 2012). Moreover, moderately halophilic bacteria and extremely halophilic archaea were isolated from salted sheep and goat skins by the researchers (Akpolat et al., 2015; Caglayan et al., 409