[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 207 (Monday, October 27, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55569-55570]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-28366]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food Safety and Inspection Service
[Docket No. 97-057N]
Notice of Change in Inspection Procedures; Adoption of a Hands-
off Inspection Procedure for Lambs
AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In response to a request from the American Sheep Industry
Association, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is changing
its inspection procedures for lambs. Currently, inspectors palpate the
carcasses of lambs for the purpose of detecting and removing carcasses
with diseases such as Caseous lymphadenitis. Under the new procedure,
there will be hands-off inspection of lambs in order to reduce the risk
and hands-on inspection methods may spread or add microbial
contamination to carcasses.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dr. Alice Thaler, Chief, Concepts & Design Branch, Inspection Methods
Development Division, Office of Policy, Program Development, and
Evaluation, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Department of
Agriculture, Washington, DC 20250-3700; telephone, (202) 205-0005.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Traditionally, meat inspectors have palpated the carcasses of lambs
as part of their post-mortem evaluation of these animals. The American
Sheep Industry Association recommended that we end this practice for
food safety reasons. The primary justification for this long-standing
hands-on inspection procedure was to detect and remove carcasses with
diseases such as Caseous lymphadenitis.
In determining the desirability of such a procedure for lambs, FSIS
considered two questions: (1) Will diseased carcasses of parts be more
likely to reach consumers in a hands-off system?; and (2) Are current
hands-on inspection methods likely to be spreading or adding
contamination to carcasses?
Comparing Hands-on and Hands-off Procedures
The first issue deals with the benefits of a hands-on system. What
is the risk that a diseased carcass or diseased parts would be passed
for food and reach the consumer if FSIS instituted a hands-off
inspection procedure?
The second issue was to determine whether current inspection
techniques used on lambs cause inspectors to spread or add
contamination to carcasses. Although there is no data on this specific
question, we believe that data from other food handling and health care
industries indicate that the hands-on procedures could contaminate lamb
carcasses or spread such contamination.
Caseous lymphadenitis is the primary disease detected by carcass
palpation, and it is not a public health concern. In the United States,
there are six plants that slaughter 80 percent of the lambs. From
Fiscal Years 1987 to 1996, these six plants slaughtered 26,347,480
lambs and yearlings. (Present data do not distinguish between lambs and
yearlings.) The plants condemned 1,203 animals in the same 10-year
period for Caseous lymphadenitis, a 0.0046 percent condemnation rate.
It is unknown how many carcasses were detected on post-mortem and
trimmed, and then passed for food.
Seven of the diseases routinely present in lambs are of public
health concern: Actinobacillosis, Campylobacteriosis, Contagious
ecthyma, Echinococcosis, Leptospirosis, Salmonella dysentery, and
Toxoplasmosis. However, none of them require carcass palpation for
diagnosis.
The American Sheep Industry Association believes that hands-on
inspection methods spread or add contamination to carcasses, including
pathogenci microorganisms such as Escherichia coli 0157:H7 and
Salmonella. The Agenc7y evaluated existing information to determine its
adequacy and reviewed literature regarding the documented spread of
contamination by hands in other industries. (See References at end of
document.) Evidence from other food handling and health care industries
supports these concerns. (Gould and Ream 1996; Wenzel and Pulverer
1995). FSIS accepts the documentation in allied fields, which argues
that the palpation of lamb carcasses is inconsistent with our food
safety philosophy that FSIS must return carcasses presented for
inspection with unchanged or lower food safety risk factors.
Conclusion
The primary reason for carcass palpation in lambs is to detect
Caseous lymphadenitis. This disease is not in public health concern and
has an extremely low condemnation rate. Although it has not been proven
directly that palpation by inspectors causes microbial contamination or
actually spreads such contamination, compelling evidence from allied
industries indicates that hands do spread or add microorganisms. The
risk of contamination using a hands-on procedure exceeds the risk of
diseased carcasses being missed using a hands-off procedure for lambs.
Therefore, FSIS is proceeding to adopt a hands-off inspection
method for lambs. This process involves a number of steps, including
consultation with employee organizations. FSIS intends to complete the
process within the next 12 months.
FSIS will monitor condemnation rates in the six plants to identify
the impact, if any, of the change. Further, the Agency intends to look
at the implications of hands-of inspection procedures with regard to
the production of all meat and poultry products.
Done at Washington, DC, on October 17, 1997.
Thomas J. Billy,
Administrator.
References
1. Snider, O.P., Jr., HACCP--An Industry Food Safety Self-
Control Program--Part VI, Dairy Food & Environ. Sanitation, June
1992; 12(6):362-365.
2. Almeida, R.C., Kuaye, A.Y., Serrano, A.M., de Almeida, P.F.,
Evaluation and Control of the Microbiological Quality of Hands in
Food Handlers, Revista de Saude Publica (Brazil), Aug. 1995;
29(4):290-4.
3. Bell, R.G., Hathaway, S.C., The Hygienic Efficiency of
Conventional and Inverted Lamb Dressing Systems. Journal of Applied
Bacteriology (New Zealand). Sep. 1996; 81(3):225-34AB.
4. Gould, D., Ream, E., Nurses' Infection-control Practice: Hand
Decontamination, the Use of Gloves and Sharp Instruments.
International Journal of Nursing Studies (U.K.). Apr. 1996;
33(2):143-60AB.
[[Page 55570]]
5. Wenzel, R., Pulverer, G., Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus homiletics on the Hands of Health Care Workers: A
Route of Transmission or a Source? Journal of Hospital Infection
(Germany). Nov. 1995; 31(3):195-120AB.
6. Kaltenthaler, E.C., Elsworth, A.M., Schweiger, M.S. Mara,
D.D., Brfaunholttz, D.A., Faecal Contamination on Children's Hands
and Environmental Surfaces in Primary Schools in Leeds. Epidemiology
and Infection (U.K.). Dec. 1995; 115(3):527-34.
7. Sengupta, P.G., Sicar, B.K., Mandal, S.K. Mukhopadhyay, A.K.,
Nair, G.B., et al., Epidemiology of Vibro cholerae 0139 with Special
References to Intrafamilial Transmission in Calcutta. Journal of
Infection (India). Jul. 1995; 31(1):45-7.
8. Gerding, D.N., Johnson, S., Peterson, L.R., Mulligan, M.E.,
Silva, J.A., Jr., Clostridium difficile-Associated Diarrhea and
Colitis. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, Aug. 1995; 457-
77AB.
9. Urano, T., Noguchi, K., Jiang, G., Tsukumi, K., Survey of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Contamination in Human Beings and Laboratory
Animals. Experimental Animals (Japan). Jul. 1995; 44(3):233-9.
[FR Doc. 97-28366 Filed 10-24-97; 8:45 am]
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