title: A preliminary microbiological assessment of process hygiene of traditional outdoor camel slaughter in Sahrawi refugee camps.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the hygiene performance of a camel (Camelus dromedarius) slaughtering process as carried out with the traditional method in the Sahrawi refugee camps located in southwestern Algeria. The camel slaughtering process in this region differs  significantly from that carried out in commercial abattoirs. Slaughtering is performed outdoors in desert areas, and dehiding of the carcass is approached via the dorsoventral route rather than the classic ventrodorsal route. Samples were taken from 10 camel carcasses from three different  areas: the hide, the carcass meat immediately after dehiding, and the meat after final cutting. Enterobacteriaceae counts (EC) were enumerated employing conventional laboratory techniques. Carcass meat samples resulted in EC below the detection limit more frequently if the hide samples  from the same carcass had also EC counts below the detection limit. Because of the low number of trials, the calculation of statistical significance of the results was not possible. Further experimental research is needed in order to validate the results presented in this study. The comparison  of the microbiological hygiene performance between dorsal dehiding and traditional ventral dehiding of slaughtered animals could serve to validate the hypothesis of the potential positive impact of the dorsal dehiding method in carcass meat hygiene.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Diagnostica Clinica Legnaro, via Romea 14/A, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Corrò
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saleh-Mohamed-Lamin
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jatri-Hamdi
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Slut-Ahmed
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohamed-Lejlifa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Lello
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Broglia
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vivas-Alegre
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000462:Algeria; D000818:Animals; D002162:Camelus / Q000382:microbiology; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D037901:Euthanasia, Animal / Q000379:methods*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006920:Hygiene; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000592:standards; D018570:Risk Assessment