Hygienic Handling and Processing of Raw Beef Meat at Slaughter Houses and Meat Stalls in Gojjam Area, Ethiopia

A cross sectional study was conducted to assesses human resource capabilities, sanitation of slaughter houses and processing materials; and hygienic indicator microorganisms and specific foodborne pathogens. Observation survey was undertaken at all slaughter houses and meat-stalls; while interview data were collected from 54 slaughter house butchers. At the same time 21 meat samples were collected from 4, 8, 4 and 5 randomly selected meat stalls of Bure, Debremarkos, Dejen and Fenoteselam respectively from April to August. Slaughter house workers were not professionally trained and certified; most of them were not used aprons, hair cover and gumboots; and all had no overall cloth. The entire abattoirs had no clear division for slaughtering process, which undertaken simply on the ground and hanging were take place on simply constructed wood. Relatively Debremarkos (46.15%) abattoir had better sanitary standard, and followed with Fenoteselam (23.08%), Bure (15.38%) and Dejen (7.69%). The mean count of Enterobacteriaceae was not significantly (P≥0.05) different; but Escherichia coli, and Salmonella and Shigella species were significantly (P