24012-QS-Report-02-2019_A4_GB_Fleisch.indd

QS-Report: Meat and Meat Products | Issue 2/2019 QS-Report Meat and Meat Products The world‘s largest trade fair of the food industry, Anuga, took place in Cologne at the beginning of October. Under the motto “QS - More than the standard. Together in the market.” invited QS to its newly designed booth in Hall 6. The QS booth o ered the perfect plat- form to enter into dialogue with the industry. Along with the industry-wide agreement on animal welfare and the labelling of the farming systems - Haltungsform, the future of the meat in- dustry was a central topic in the numer- QS Science Funds Collection of diagnostic data in beef cattle QS in dialogue with the industry Boot swab samples suitable for verifying surface disinfection in poultry houses Pilot project starts at the end of 2019 Anuga 2019 and Co. ous conversations held. Experts from the Initiative Tierwohl and Haltungs- form.de were also represented. QS Managing Director Dr. Hermann-Josef Nienho : “The open dialogue with our partners and other industry representatives at Anuga provided important impulses. Only together we will be able to further improve the good standards and achieve more for the industry.” Specially for Anuga, QS had developed an interactive theme universe, which visitors to the fair could use to inform themselves about all areas of the QS inspection system - from the ASF risk traffic light to certification. However, the undisputed highlight of the event was the traditional “Blue Hour”, which took place on Monday evening at the QS booth. Here, business partners and co-exhibitors were able to round off the third day at Anuga with blue cocktails, selected delicacies and interesting conversations. ICOMST AND FORUM DER FLEISCHWIRTSCHAFT QS REPRESENTED AS SPONSOR WITH INFOSTAND Other event highlights in the second half of the year included QS‘s participation in the International Con- gress of Meat Science and Technology (ICoMST) in Potsdam, as well as the Forum der Fleischwirtschaft Since 2018, all poultry and pig abattoirs have been reporting their ndings to the QS diagnostic database. Starting next year, QS also plans to central- ly collect the diagnostic data of beef cattle abattoirs. For the time being, QS is in consultation with the industry representatives as to which ndings should be collected and used to calculate an animal health index for beef cattle. A pilot project to be launched at the end of 2019 should be carried out in several beef cattle abattoirs, that allows to draw further conclusions regarding the criteria, the implementation and the technical requirements for the data collection and transmission. Slaughter diagnostic data pro- vide important information on animal diseases to veterinarians and live- stock owners, thus representing essential indicators on animal welfare and animal health in the farms. The cleaning and disinfection of live- stock stables (see gure) are impor- tant hygiene measures to prevent the transmission of pathogens, zoonotic agents or resistant bacteria from a previous run to the next production cycle through contamination. For QS companies, it is obligatory to properly clean and disinfect poultry houses, facilities and equipment between de- stocking and reoccupation. In Germa- ny, there are currently no standards available for checking the success of cleaning and disinfection measures in livestock farming. In a research project, the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover has investigated various procedures for the assessment of cleaning and disinfection measures. The “Boot swab sample” project, sup- ported by the QS Science Funds, had two main objectives: to test whether the boot swab sample is suitable for safely testing the cleaning and dis- infection of livestock stables and whether it can function as a rapid test in livestock stables. With the help of the boot swab sample, large areas can be easily walked on and stables can be sampled quickly. A quick test enables the success of cleaning and disinfection measures al- most in real time and directly on site without sending samples to laboratories. The results of the project show that the boot swab sample is suitable for demonstrating the cleaning and disinfection success in poultry hous- es. However, on structured surfaces, such as slatted floors in pig stables, the method is less suitable because microbial contamination in the slats is not detected. The evaluated rapid test proved not to be applicable for several reasons. Project manager PD Dr. Schulz pleads for the further development and evaluation of alternative rapid tests. Within the project, a high bac- terial load was partially detected even after cleaning and disinfection measures in the stables. Practical rapid tests could promptly point out further need for action in order to further improve hygiene in livestock farming. The final version of the project including all results can be found here (only available in German): www.q-s.de/Abschlussbericht-Sockentupferprobe 1. Rough cleaning 2. Soaking 3. Cleaning 4. Rinsing/washing 5. Drying 6. Disinfection