Microbial Quality of Beef Carcasses and Hygiene Practices at Municipal Abattoirs of Central Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Microbial contamination of beef carcasses occurs during slaughtering process. Cross-sectional study was conducted to assess microbial quality of carcasses and workers' meat safety practices at five municipal abattoirs in the central part of Ethiopia. Overall, 255 carcass swab samples, along with 30 samples each from hands and knife swabs, and water were collected for microbial quality assessment using standard plating method. Additionally, semi structured questionnaires were administered to 142 abattoir workers to assess their meat safety practices. The study showed that the overall mean aerobic plate count of 6.12 log10 CFU/cm2 and fecal coliform count of 4.58 log10 CFU/cm2 on beef carcasses. Carcass swabs had a significantly higher mean aerobic plate count (6.12 log10 CFU/cm2) compared to knife (5.54 log10 CFU/cm2; p=0.006) and hand swabs (5.19 log10 CFU/cm2, p=0.000) while knife swabs showed a higher mean fecal coliform count (5.05 log10 CFU/cm2) than carcass swabs (p = 0.005). Overall 60% of water samples were positive for E. coli and fecal coliforms. Furthermore, the use of personal protective equipment including overall coats and boots was 99.30%. All abattoir workers reported abstaining from eating, drinking and smoking at work, and 73.94% did not wear jewelry during slaughter processing. The use of aprons (44.37%) and head covers (45.77%) was practiced by less than half of the respondents, yet 63.38% of workers consistently wore clean personal protective equipment. Task alternation and equipment sharing were common, with 50% of workers engaging in these practices. Sterilization of knives between each use was not practiced by all abattoirs workers, and only 44.37% of workers performed regular medical checkups. About 35.21% of workers practiced hand washing with soap while only 9.15% used gloves during the slaughtering process. Among the respondents, 52.11% of them had received on job food safety training. In conclusion, the study showed high microbial loads on beef carcasses and a low meat safety practice rate (39.44%), highlighting the need for strict and effective multi-stakeholder food safety measures.