Microbiological assessment of mutton intended for export from Elkadaro export slaughter house, Sudan

The study is planned to evaluate the hygienic quality of mutton intended for export from Elkadaro slaughter house on basis of surface bacterial contamination. Seventy five samples were collected during five visits, 15 samples in each visit (five samples for each: slaughter hall, slaughter house chiller and the refrigerated vehicle at Airport after unloading). A metallic triangle was used as a template from which swabs were taken. The results of the bacterial counts revealed relatively high counts (ranges between 1 × 103 - 6× 106 CFU/cm2), but without critical contamination levels according to the cut-off point for fresh meat (106 CFU/cm2) and chilled meat (107 CFU/cm2) except in the last visit (2 ×106CFU/cm2).   Key words: Sudan, mutton, slaughter house, export.