Animal samples were collected by the Food Safety Inspection Service of the USDA from federally inspected slaughter and processing plants throughout the United States and sent to USDA facilities in Athens, Georgia, for further analysis.
There is a need for a strong effort to encourage and assist entrepreneurs: feedstuff suppliers, equipment manufacturers, hatcheries, chick starting centres, as well as, marketers, slaughter and processing plants, financial services to develop and improve input supplies to the small scale poultry producers.
Prevention of microbial contamination involves careful regulation and monitoring of the slaughtering and processing plants, proper handling and storage, and adequate cooking of raw and processed poultry products.
The objective of this study is to investigate whether these agents cause similar diseases in humans, by studying workers in poultry slaughtering and processing plants who have one of the highest human exposures to these agents.
There are 6,032 federally inspected meat and poultry slaughtering and processing plants in the United States.
Our results raise concerns about the exposure of hog slaughter and processing plant workers to antimicrobial-resistant S. aureus.
Therefore, we undertook a study of workers in a large hog slaughter and processing plant, their household members, and community residents.
Multidrug-resistant and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in hog slaughter and processing plant workers and their community in North Carolina (USA).
We conducted a cross-sectional study between September and November 2011 in Tar Heel, North Carolina, the location of the Smithfield plant, the largest hog slaughter and processing plant in the United States.
The most common S. aureus genotypes in hog slaughter and processing plant workers in our study were ST8 (belonging to CC8) and ST5 (belonging to CC5), with the predominant MRSA genotype being ST8 (4/9 isolates).
To our knowledge, this is the first published study in the United States to examine carriage of S. aureus, MDRSA, and MRSA in hog slaughter and processing plant workers and their communities.
