122 BACTERIOLOGY OF MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE BACTERIOLOGY OF MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS 



Until the last few years but little was known of the normal 

 bacteriology of meat and meat products and much work is still 

 required before many important points related to meat con- 

 ditions can be regarded as settled. The text books contain 

 little or no reliable information and much of the following is 

 contained in reports and journals not readily accessible. For 

 this reason rather more extended information is supplied than 

 perhaps would otherwise be warranted by the importance of 

 the subject-matter. 



I. The bacteriology of meat, fish, made-meats, etc., derived from 



healthy animals. 



Little or no work in this direction has been done in this 

 country, but under the better regulated meat inspection arrange- 

 ments which prevail in Germany numerous investigations have 

 been carried out in recent years. The following will illustrate 

 the findings. 



Unprepared meat. 



Gaertner in 1908 found that bacilli were present on the 

 surface of fresh meat but had not penetrated, if the examination 

 was made within three days of slaughter, while by the end of 

 ten days they had not penetrated more than 0*5 inch into the 

 interior. These results were confirmed by Forster (1908) as 

 regards the general sterility of the interior of fresh meat. 



Conradi 1 in 1909 used a special enrichment method (see page 

 128) to detect bacilli and obtained different results. He ex- 

 amined 162 organs from 150 healthy animals (bovines, calves 

 and pigs) slaughtered at Neunkirchen Slaughter House and 



1 Zcit. f. Fldsch. u. Milchhyg. 1909, July, p. 341. 



