Analysis of Cured Meat Products for Cryptosporidium Oocysts following Possible Contamination during an Extensive Waterborne Outbreak of Cryptosporidiosis

Abstract

<jats:p>An outbreak of waterborne cryptosporidiosis in a town in northern Sweden during winter 2010 resulted in the potential exposure of cured meat products to Cryptosporidium oocysts during their manufacture. The purpose of this work was to develop a method for analyzing cured meat products for contamination with Cryptosporidium oocysts and use this method to analyze potentially contaminated product samples. A simple method of elution, concentration, separation, and detection was used, based on work with other food matrices but adapted for the relatively high fat content of cured meat surfaces. Using spiking experiments, the recovery efficiency of this method was found to be over 60%. In the analysis of the potentially contaminated products, only one putative Cryptosporidium oocyst was detected, and this was sufficiently deformed so that it could not be confirmed as an oocyst; if it was an oocyst, it was considered to have been probably deformed and inactivated prior to analysis. Based on the results of the analyses, together with data on the probable extent of contamination of the products and on our knowledge of factors, such as water activity, which affect oocyst survival, the products were safely released to the market.</jats:p>

Microbial Safety of Beef Along Beef Value Chains in the Ashaiman Municipality of Ghana

“…There is very little published data on elution of Cryptosporidium oocyst from meat products. Therefore, the procedures used in this study were adopted and modified from previous studies of Robertson and Huang ( 20 ) who eluded oocyst from cured meat. Elution of Cryptosporidium oocyst was performed by homogenizing 10 g of raw beef in a stomacher bag containing 90 ml normal saline and Tween-20 for 15 min.…”

Public health risks associated with food‐borne parasites

“…Cryptosporidium might be controlled on cured meats by the salinity and low water activity, but these are assumptions from other investigations as there have been no viability or infectivity studies of cured meat (Robertson and Huang, ).…”

“…The lifecycle of Cryptosporidium usually occurs in the small intestine and meat surfaces might become contaminated with oocysts from faeces, particularly at the slaughterhouse. Very few studies of Cryptosporidium on meat have been undertaken – most of the information comes either from reactive development work for cured meat prepared using possibly contaminated water that caused a drinking waterborne outbreak in Sweden (Robertson and Huang, ), or from the EU Fifth Framework Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources programme (Appendix C). This EU project focused on the development of new methods to isolate and detect C. parvum in food and water samples.…”

“…When cured meat that had been processed during a drinking water outbreak in Sweden, only a single, putative oocyst was detected (Robertson and Huang, ). Oocysts were not detected on beef carcasses sampled at a commercial beef abattoir in Ireland (Moriarty et al., ).…”

“…Dairy hygiene is important for the prevention of faecal contamination of milk. Meats may be exposed to contaminated water or cross contamination during curing processes (Robertson and Huang, ).…”