Bacteriological examination of meat of Wild boars shot down in Piedmont and Liguria, Italy

Abstract

Muscle samples from 71 wild boars shot down were taken within 24 h post mortem for bacteriological determination. Total viable bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococci, Staphylococci, Clostridia, Campylobacter and Salmonella were enumerated. In inner parts of meat the total bacterial count was slightly lower than that of surface samples, varying from 103 to 10 cfu/g. However, remarkable amounts of Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococci and coagulase-positive Staphylococci were found both on the surface and in inner parts of a large part of the meat samples. No Campylobacter was detected in any case, whereas strains of Salmonella were found on the surface and in inner parts of 3 samples. An improvement of sanitary inspection of such game wild boars intended to private consumption should be useful. Bleeding of animals as soon as possible after death can be effective means to avoid the presence of infection or toxi-infection microorganisms in game meat.