Survey of the microbiological contamination of cull ewes and prime lamb at slaughter in England and Wales

This is a voluntary survey and all abattoirs that slaughter sheep and lambs in England and Wales have been invited to participate. Samples will be taken by FSA operations teams within abattoirs aiming to collect 1380 carcase swab samples over a 12-month period. Samples will undergo detection and enumeration for Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae by APHA Weybridge. The main objective of the FSA part of survey is to gather scientific data that will help meet evidence gaps identified during recent risk assessments. It is designed to: 1. Generate a baseline of prevalence and levels of indicator organisms (E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae) in prime lamb carcases to inform foreign market equivalence assessments. 2. Gather data to enable the FSA to better assess the risk to the consumer of changes to official microbiological sampling requirements for slaughterhouses, for example based on throughput. 3. Gather information on the prevalence and levels of Salmonella and Campylobacter detected on the carcase and in the caecum of culled ewes versus prime lamb.