7 Diseases Associated with Meat
There are several diseases well known to both the industry and the general public that are directly related to all the domestic meat species of beef, pork, lamb, and poultry. These include:
- E. coli from ground beef
- BSE (bovine spongiform encephalitis) from beef cattle
- Trichinosis from pork
- Salmonella from poultry
- Scrapie from lamb and mutton
In addition, the meat and food industry are vulnerable to a variety of other infectious diseases that can manifest in food processing areas due mainly to poor personal hygiene and processing sanitation practices, which in turn can develop the growth of bacteria, viruses, moulds, and yeasts.These can then set the stage for:
- Foodborne infection, such as salmonella or trichinosis, caused by ingesting food that is contaminated with bacteria, parasites, and viruses
- Foodborne intoxication, either bacterial, such as E. coli, or chemical, where food has been contaminated with toxic chemicals, such as cleaning compounds or pesticides
Two particularly dangerous foodborne bacteria that can cause serious illness require special attention:
- Clostridium botulinum, which can develop in vacuum-packaged and canned foods
- Listeria monocytogenes, which occurs due to poor cleaning of machines, dirty floors, and drains
Following is a brief overview of the major risks – in terms of bacteria and illnesses – associated with meat and the meat industry. Some of the bacteria are known to originate from meat; others can and do develop in food processing areas through unhygienic practices.
BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy): commonly known as mad cow disease, a fatal brain-degenerative disease (encephalopathy) in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about two-and-a-half to eight years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of four to five years. All breeds are equally susceptible. The disease can be easily transmitted to humans who eat food contaminated by the brain, spinal cord, or digestive tract of infected carcasses. In humans, it is known as the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and as of June 2014 it had killed 177 people in the United Kingdom and 52 elsewhere. Controls on high-risk offal (internal organs) were introduced in 1989. The cause was cattle, which are normally herbivores, being fed the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal (MBM), which caused the infectious agent to spread. Outbreaks of BSE in Canada severely crippled Canadian beef exports, which have only recently been restored. Under Canadian law, it is now illegal to feed cattle MBM. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) strictly controls the slaughter of all beef animals over the age of 30 months.
Safeguards:
- Due to the severity of the disease, the following prevention measures have been implemented at the harvesting point, which has eliminated any possible transmission of the disease to the public. All possi