An-Najah Staff

A total of 290 samples, 150 meat samples and 140 fresh chicken eggs samples were collected randomly from butchers shops in Nablus area in the period from September 2000 to April 2001. The meat samples include 76 fresh turkey meat, 68 frozen cattle meat and 6 frozen sheep meat. The meat samples were assayed and studied for total bacterial count, total coliform count using pour plate technique, and the incidence of Salmonella and E.coli Ol57:H7 in order to assess the role of animal meat as a source of these pathogens. The egg samples were studied for incidence of Salmonella & other enteric bacteria in order to assess the role of chicken egg as a source of Salmonella. Both types of samples were studied using standard enrichment, plating, biochemical and serological techniques. Total bacterial and total coliform count indicate the overall microbial quantity, and hence the quality of meat, This work showed that fresh turkey meat had the highest percentage (57.9%) of unacceptable samples depending on Palestine acceptable microbial standards, followed by frozen cattle meat (29.4%) and frozen. sheep meat (16.7%). All the samples of meat were negative for R.Coli () I57: H7. For the presence of Salmonella, fresh turkey meat showed an incidence of (5.3%), which was higher than that of frozen cattle meat (1.5%), frozen sheep meat (0.0%), and fresh chicken eggs (0.0%). The average total bacterial count for the meat samples was 4.12 x l0⁶ CFU/g, whereas the average total coliform count was 2.4x10⁵ CFU/g. The average total bacterial count for turkey meat samples was 4.1x10⁶ CFU/g, cattle meat samples was 6.46x10⁶ CFU/g, and sheep meat samples was 2.03x10⁶ CFU/g. The average total coliform count for turkey samples meat was 4.24x10⁵ CFU/g, cattle meat samples was 2.55><l05 CFU/g, and sheep meat samples was 0.42x10⁵ CFU/g.