Assessment of Hygienic Practice on Camel Meat Handlers, and Identification of Bacterial Contamination in Abattoir and Butcheries of Nagelle Town, Southern Oromia, Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the hygienic practice during handling of raw camel meat and identification of the major source of bacterial contamination at abattoirs and butcheries of Nagelle town. To achieve the objectives of this study, the data were collected from 68 camel meat sample and 60 from swab samples both from abattoir and butchers workers and semi-structured interview questionnaire, and site observation checklist were used. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. The study isolated and identified that all the tested positive camel meat samples were subjected to E. coli count, Staphylococcus aureus count and aerobic plate count (APC). The S. aureus, E. coli and Salmonella spp were detected from the total of collected raw camel meat sample12 (35.3%), 16 (47%) and 8 (23.5%) at abattoirs and 19 (55.9%), 22 (64.7%) and 10 (29.4%) from at butcheries respectively. Mean S. aureus counts for camel meat were 2.76 and 3.07 log10 CFU/g while mean E. coli counts were 2.81 and 3.94 log10 CFU/g, from abattoirs and butcheries respectively. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) between the E. coli at abattoirs and butcheries and S. aureus count at abattoirs and butcheries, respectively. Mean aerobic plate counts of camel meat from abattoirs (4.67 log10 CFU/g) were not significantly different as compared to APC values of butcheries (5.49 log10 CFU/g). The isolated bacteria were in decreasing order E. coli, S. aureus and Salmonella spp were detected from swab sample such as person hand, environment, cutting board and knife at abattoirs and butcheries respectively. Thus the present study reveals the fact that raw camel meat is heavily contaminated with the high incidence of bacterial pathogen and the major source of bacterial contamination were in decreasing order person hand, environment, cutting board and knife respectively. It is concluded that the major source of bacterial contamination of raw camel meat at butcheries house than abattoirs in Nagelle town. Therefore there is an urgent necessity to minimize the contamination of camel meat handling at abattoirs and sold at butcheries house by implying proper general hygienic and equipment sanitation practices.