Microbiology of the digestive tube ante and post mortem

This bibliographic review provides an overview of knowledge on farm animal digestive microbiota and on the effect of a delay between death and evisceration on meat microbiological quality. After the animal’s death, bacterial activity persists, resulting in the production of gas which dilates the digestive tract and increases the risk of carcass contamination during evisceration. In addition, some bacteria can migrate from the lumen of the digestive tract to the lymph by a natural mechanism of translocation. However, the majority of the few scientific studies on this topic show that after a delay ranging from 30 minutes to 5 hours, carcasses do not present a health risk as defined by European regulations. Further studies with omics approaches are needed to determine more clearly this possible health risk, especially in the context of on-farm slaughtering, which leads to an increase in the time between bleeding and evisceration.