Microbial quality and safety of ostrich meat

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the quality of slaughtered ostrich meat and to evaluate the ostrich slaughter process, to determine whether ostrich meat are contaminated by the in-house slaughtering practices and if prevalence of microorganisms increase with the succession of the slaughter process. Furthermore, the presence of specific foodborne pathogens and spoilage organisms was explored by means of molecular and conventional methods to determine whether ostrich meat is a source of these microorganisms. Data obtained from this study provides some baseline information that could be used in future studies on system contamination and the extent of downstream processing steps in the production of ostrich meat. Antimicrobial resistance has become a growing area of concern in both human and veterinary medicine, it is therefore necessary that another aim of this study was to determine the antibiotic resistant pattern of Staphylococcus aureus in ostrich meat in order to establish whether Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from ostrich meat samples show resistance to antibiotics.