Muchangos AC 1, McCrindle CME 1, Matusse H ³, Makita K 2

Poultry is a major component of the diet, a valuable andaffordable source of protein for all society in Mozambique.However, it is unknown whether poultry meat consumptioncontributes to diarrheal diseases, an important cause ofmortalities in the country.

The contamination rate with E. coli Type I was significantlyhigher in live bird markets (63%) than formal abattoir (39%)and farms (40%). The Coliforms was significantly higher inabattoir (41%,) than farms (21%) and live bird market (6%). TheAPC was significantly higher in live bird markets (87%) thanformal abattoir (64%) and farms (44%).

Of the 3 bacterial counts that are most likely to prejudice foodsafety rather than quality, the level of E. coli Type 1 is the mostimportant as it indicates faecal contamination. This suggest ahigher likelihood of risk in poultry meat from live bird marketsthan those from the formal abattoir or direct from the farm.However, all three value chains were contaminated with thefaecally derived organism, which has the potential to causefood born disease in consumers.

Table 1 shows the estimated number of carcassescontaminated with E. coli Type 1, entering the market per week

Prerequisites such as lack infrastructure for processing,inadequate waste management and poor hygiene wereobserved in live birds markets and farms. Deficient disinfectionof equipment and utensils, inadequate washing of carcasses,Inadequate chilling temperature and poor personal hygienewere observed at abattoirs.

The magnitude of the risk for a single consumer can beestimated from market segmentation, based on the estimatednumber of fowls slaughtered per week per outlet type.Although the highest proportion of contaminated carcasses isfrom the live birds markets, the largest number of contaminatedpoultry carcasses comes from the high throughput abattoirs.

Hygiene assessment and management system is proposed for allthree value chains with a focus on the CCPs identified by theresearch. A participatory risk communication strategy has beendeveloped for all involved in the poultry value chain to improvehygiene and safety of poultry meat.

Participatory risk analysis to investigate the value chains forpoultry processing in Maputo, indicating possible stages atwhich there was a risk of microbiological hazards that couldinfluence safety of the final product:• semi-structured interviews;• focus group discussions;• observation of poultry processing in formal and informalslaughter

The magnitude of the risk of microbiological hazards wasestimated using laboratory analysis. Samples of poultrycarcasses were randomly collected from abattoirs, live birdmarkets and farms, and processed using 3M™ Petrifilm™ Platesfor E coli Type I, Coliforms and Aerobic Plate Count as indicatorsof contamination to assess the compliance with GHP and GMP,considered relevant pre-requisites for HACCP.

Fig 1 Shows the poultry value chain as a flow diagram, for each type of processor in Maputo

Fig 4 Relative frequencyat live market

Fig 3 Relative frequencyat farms

Fig 2 Relative frequency at abattoir

1 University of Pretoria, South Africa2 International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya3 Institute for Agricultural Research of Mozambique

ILRI, University of Pretoria, Institute for Agricultural Research of Mozambique and Mozambique Poultry Association are acknowledged for contributions to this research

Farms 10943 40 4377

Abattoirs 43772 39 17071

Market 3283 63 20684

Outlet type Fowls

slaughtered/week

Freq. of contaminated

carcasses/week

% positive for E

coli Type 1

CAC. 2005. Code of hygienic practice for meat1. RCP 58.CAC. 1999. Principles and guidelines for the conduct of microbiological risk assessment. GL-30.Directorate for Veterinary Services (DVS). 2007. Standards for microbiological monitoring of meat. VPN/15/2007-1. Pretoria.Directorate for Veterinary Services (DVS). 2007. Meat Inspectors Manual. Poultry, Part II. Pretoria.Ministério da Saúde. 1997. Manual de Microbiologia Alimentar. Maputo.Mozambique Poultry Association. 2009. Annual report. Maputo