Abstract:
Salmonella has been found to be the major cause of foodborne diseases and a serious public
health problem with high degree of contamination. To address this issue a cross sectional
study was conducted from June 2022 to December 2022 to estimate the prevalence and
determine the burden of Salmonella in goat meat slaughtered at backyard and retailer
house and identify the problem of hygienic practice in Haramaya town. A total of 336 swab
samples were collected from goat meat and environmental sample, and examined for the
prevalence of Salmonella by using conventional microbiologic procedure. All samples were
exposed to serial dilution to determine salmonella load in goat meat from backyard and
retailers house. Moreover, a total of 33 butcher’s house workers having different
demography were interviewed on the knowledge, attitude and practice on salmonellosis.
Out of total 336 samples examined 69(20.5%) were Salmonella positive. Salmonella was
recorded 20.08%, 31.6%, 19.6%, 22.2%, and 15.8% in goat meat swab, cutting board, hand
swab sample, knife and hook swab sample respectively. Higher prevalence of salmonella
was found in butcher house 30(26.8%) than backyard 15(13.4%) in meat swab sample.
Salmonella on different samples show that; 5.76 log10 cfu/ml, 5.83 log10 cfu/ml, 5.78 log10
cfu/ml, 5.81 log10 cfu/ml, 5.66 log10 cfu/ml and 5.52 log10 cfu/ml on meat swab sample from
backyard, meat swab from butchers, hand swab sample, cutting board, knife swab and hook
swab sample respectively. Higher load of Salmonella was detected in butcher house (5.83
log10 cfu/ml) than backyard (5.76 log10 cfu/ml). Observational assessment of the goat meat
handling practices in butcher houses showed that about (60.6%) of them were not washed
their hands with soap during working process. The study showed that the hygienic status of
backyard and butcher houses in the study area are poor, and the prevalence and the
obtained result of salmonella load are high. Based on result, creating the awareness to
reduce the prevalence of Salmonella from goat meat with decrease the load of bacteria is
recommended and also the responsible body should be coordinate with the butcher houses
to stop the backyard slaughtering practice.
