Swine health impact on carcass contamination and human foodborne risk.

Objective: This study measured the relationship between lesions suggestive of subclinical pig illness at harvest to carcass contamination and human foodborne risk.

Methods: Over the course of eight visits (December 2005 to January 2006), we swabbed 280 randomly selected carcasses, during normal slaughter operations, at three points in the slaughter line: skin pre-scald; the bung or pelvic cavity following removal of the distal colon and rectum; and pleural cavity, immediately before the final carcass rinse. Each swab sponge was used on five carcasses in bung and pleural cavity sampling.