CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a foodborne pathogen. Cattle are reservoir of STEC and can have impact on public health. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of non-O157 STEC strains in the beef production process of one Argentinian abattoir, and to evaluate the effectiveness of improvement actions to mitigate the risk. During 2013, 429 environmental samples, 285 carcasses and 1.049 anatomical cuts were analyzed for stx detection by real time PCR, following the ISO/CEN 13136:2012. The study was divided in three stages: a) estimate the stx in environmental samples, bovine carcasses and anatomical cuts, b) define risk management practices in order to reduce the presence of STEC and strengthen the GMP and HACCP programs, c) evaluate the effectiveness of risk management practices in carcasses and anatomical cuts. From 429 environmental samples, 9.3% were stx-positive and two samples were stx/eae-positive. The prevalence of stx in carcasses during the first stage of the study was 5% (5/100), while during and after the risk management measures implementation, was zero (0/65) and 1.6% (2/120), respectively. In anatomical cuts the frequency was 8.2% (34/413), 7.8% (24/301) and 3.3% (11/335) in the three stages of the study, respectively. The improvement actions implemented were successful due to the absence of stx/eae-positive samples and the reduction of the stx gene presence. Although it was shown that the implemented measures allowed reducing substantially the presence of stx in carcasses and anatomical cuts, were not enough to achieve stx absence. It is difficult to implement and sustain a control system for raw meat based on zero-tolerance approach with the reinforced GMP and HACCP programs only. The intervention strategies such as washing of carcasses with organic acid or steam must be considered to reduce non-O157 STEC in meat.