There's a report at
Science Daily that talks about research by a "Cand.agric. Sigrun J. Hauge defended her doctoral research on 2nd May
2012 at The Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NVH) with a thesis
entitled "Hygienic impact of measures related to unclean cattle and
sheep at farm level and in the abattoir."" The article goes on to detail Sigrun's testing of a "hot water pasteurization" process for destroying
e. coli on lamb carcases. It is an interesting read (a copy follows), but its predicated on treating animals as industrial inputs. Stop doing that and meeat will become more expensive, better, and better for us.
ScienceDaily (May 4, 2012) — Following the E. coli
case in Norway in 2006, when 17 people fell ill and one child died
after eating mutton sausages, the meat industry introduced a number of
measures in order to reduce the risk of food poisoning from meat. Clean
animals and good hygiene during slaughtering are essential preconditions
for food safety.
Sigrun J. Hauge has studied the effect of the measures implemented on
farms and in slaughterhouses. The aim of the project "Uncontaminated
Carcasses" was to uncover data that would help to improve the hygienic
quality of meat from cattle and sheep by means of cleaner animals and
efficient ways of slaughtering high-risk animals.
E. coli is a commonly occurring bacterium in the digestive
tract of humans, animals and birds. Just a few strains are pathogenic
and can cause diarrhea and kidney failure, particularly in children. The
bacteria die at temperatures over 60-70 °C and are therefore normally
eliminated by boiling and roasting. Hauge has shown that a new, rapid
enzymatic method for detecting E. coli is equally as reliable
as the traditional method of growing bacteria culture. This new method
is therefore suitable for monitoring E. coli in abattoirs.
