Visual cleanliness scores of cattle at slaughter and microbial loads on the hides and the carcases.

In two abattoirs, visual cleanliness of 100 cattle was assessed before slaughter (on a scale of 1 to 4). From each animal, two sponge swabs (approximately 2000 cm(2) area, each) were taken: (a) from hide, immediately after sticking, and (b) from final carcase, but before chilling. In each swab sample, total viable count (TVC), Enterobacteriaceae count (EC) and the presence of Escherichia coli O157 were determined. The mean TVC/EC status of hides and final carcases differed significantly only between very dirty cattle (category 4) and all other less dirty or clean cattle (categories 1, 2 and 3), but not between the less dirty and clean cattle (between categories 1, 2 and 3). However, no clear relationship between the visual cleanliness of the hide and the occurrence of E coli O157 on hide or dressed carcases was observed. The study indicated the possibility that visual categorisation of cattle into only two main categories - one containing very dirty animals (category 4 in this work, corresponding to categories 4+5 in The UK Food Standards Agency system) and another containing all the other less dirty or clean animals (categories 1+2+3) - could be sufficient in practice.

Treatment of cattle hides with Shellac-in-ethanol solution to reduce bacterial transferability--a preliminary study.

A solution of natural, food-grade resin (Shellac) in ethanol was evaluated to treat samples of visually clean and dry cattle hides with the aim to reduce bacterial removability from the hides by swabbing. Hide treatment by 23% Shellac-in-ethanol solution reduced sponge-swabbing recoveries of general microflora (TVC) by a factor of 6.6 logs (>1000-fold larger than the 2.9 log reduction observed by ethanol alone), and of generic Escherichia coli and Enterobacteriaceae by factors of at least 2.9 and 4.8 logs, respectively. These reductions were superior to those achieved by a sanitizer rinse-vacuum hide treatment. Significantly greater reductions of TVC recoveries from hides were achieved when using higher Shellac concentrations (23 and 30% rather than 4.8-16.7%) and when Shellac solution temperatures were 20-40 degrees C rather than 50-60 degrees C. Furthermore, the Shellac-based treatment also markedly reduced the E. coli O157 prevalence (3.7-fold reduction) on natural, uninoculated hides, as well as the counts of E. coli O157 on artificially inoculated hides (2.1 log reduction). This preliminary study indicated that a "bacterial on-hide immobilisation" approach to reducing transmission of microorganisms from cattle hide is promising and so will be further explored.

Regional and international comparison in utilization of antidiabetic drugs.

Data are expressed in the comparable manner through the method of defined daily doses (DDD), which has been adopted for drugs in our country according to the internationally agreed method of drug utilization [Stanulovic et al. 1981]. Together with Iceland, Novi Sad had the lowest insulin utilization in 1976, the rate being 1.7 DDD/1000 inhabitants per day. Insulin was used 7.2 times less than in Sweden. However, the utilization of biguanide of 6 DDD/1000 inhabitants per day was 10 times greater than in other European countries. Prescribing rate of preparations of sulfonylurea in Novi Sad was high (8.2 DDD/1000 inhabitants per day); only Sweden came closer to these values. Causes contributing to these differences could be found in the relation between juvenile diabetes and adult onset diabetes as well as in physicians' attitudes towards therapy, in nutritional status and degree of obesity in the population, age structure of population, number of dietitians in the diabetological service, etc. Diabetologists and clinical pharmacologists should explain causes leading to these differences and determine side effects of available antidiabetic drugs, either positive or negative, in order to enable their optimum utilization.