USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) released preliminary data for the first six months of the Beef and Veal Carcass Baseline Survey (B-VCBS). The results reveal that the percent of all pathogens decreased from post hide removal to pre-chill, which suggests that the interventions in place are reducing the presence of pathogens on beef and veal carcasses. The data also show that beef has a higher percent of Salmonella positives at post-hide removal than veal, while veal has a higher percent of non-O157 STEC positives at post-hide removal than beef. FSIS is collecting swab samples at the post-hide removal/pre-evisceration and pre-chill stages of the slaughtering process, and will use the results to estimate the national prevalence of select pathogens to evaluate the pre-evisceration and pre-chill dressing procedures and slaughter controls to develop compliance guidance and other regulatory policies.

Source: North American Meat Institute