Pathogens in animal carcasses and the efficacy of rendering for pathogen inactivation in rendered products: A review

Routine and catastrophic animal mortalities in animal-agriculture systems poses numerous challenges in terms of animal and public health. In addition, environmental pollution is a major issue. Controlling microbial contamination issues requires implementation of safe carcass disposal methods. The risk of pathogen contamination during composting and rendering of animal products is an important and contemporary issue and has evidenced a great interest among the researchers. Increasing interest in public health and food safety evidenced by a large number of recent publications clearly indicates to the necessity for comprehensive review studies that assimilate knowledge from multidisciplinary fields to cover the issues of pathogen contamination in carcass disposal methods in order to present and address the problem as a whole. Rendering process is the leading method for carcass disposal in developed and many developing countries. It is vital for the rendering industry to apply appropriate methods during rendering to produce the finished products which are free from pathogenic bacteria. Although the typical time-temperature combinations used in rendering industry are theoretically considered adequate to completely kill the prevalent pathogens, the incidences of pathogenic contamination in rendered products have been reported from time to time. This necessitates extra precautions for producing safe rendered products and examining the rendering process and premises overall. This study reviews the possibilities of microbial contamination of rendered products and the efficacy of rendering process in pathogen inactivation. While current rendering practices are extremely helpful in controlling pathogenic contamination in the rendered products, this study included the additional biological safety measures required to ensure pathogen-free rendered products.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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