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Table 3 Effects of species, diet, and feed deprivation time (FDT) on the microbial counts (log 10 CFU/cm 2 ) on skin and carcass of sheep and goats

From: Preslaughter diet management in sheep and goats: effects on physiological responses and microbial loads on skin and carcass

  Species   Diet   FDT   
Response Goat Sheep P-value HD CD P-value 12-hrs 24-hrs P-value SE
n 16 16   16 16   16 16   
Skin, pre-holding1           
  E. coli count 2.00 2.21 0.2129 2.06 2.16 0.5527     
  Total coliform count 2.12b 3.04a 0.0011 2.43 2.73 0.2413     
  Aerobic plate count 8.21b 8.53a 0.0305 8.42 8.31 0.4511     
Skin, pre-slaughtering2           
  E. coli count 2.23b 2.93a 0.0118 2.56 2.60 0.8650 2.38 2.78 0.1238 0.180
  Total coliform count 2.26b 3.01a 0.0135 2.60 2.67 0.8074 2.42 2.85 0.1352 0.197
  Aerobic plate count 8.31 8.30 0.8017 8.33 8.28 0.3198 8.34 8.28 0.2163 0.035
Carcass, pre-washing3           
  E. coli count 2.28 2.51 0.2212 2.34 2.44 0.6018 2.28 2.41 0.8959 0.134
  Total coliform count 2.29 2.56 0.1999 2.35 2.50 0.4587 2.43 2.43 1.0000 0.141
  Aerobic plate count 7.93 8.28 0.0718 8.16 8.04 0.5076 8.35a 7.85b 0.0128 0.131
  1. HD = hay diet; CD = concentrate diet.
  2. 1Skin swabs from hind leg before depriving feed to experimental animals.
  3. 2Skin swabs from hind leg right before starting slaughtering.
  4. 3Carcass swabs from flank, brisket and leg regions right before washing after skinning and gut removed.
  5. a,bWithin a row, least squares means that do not have a common superscript letter differ (P < 0.05).
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Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology

ISSN: 2049-1891