Advanced pathogen testing and carcass-certification methods for slaughter operations

A method for detecting a contaminated carcass and preventing its movement into or across a production area, comprising:

• splitting carcasses of a carcass-Lot to provide a split-carcass-Lot or a plurality of distinguishable fractional-split-carcass-Lots, wherein each split-portion is identifiable with, or otherwise attributable to the split-carcass-Lot or to a respective fractional-split-carcass-Lot;
• obtaining, for the split-carcass-Lot or for each fractional-split-carcass-Lot, a test sample from at least one test location of at least one split-portion of each carcass, wherein the test samples are obtained prior to chilling of the respective split portions, to produce a sampled and chilled split-carcass-Lot, or a plurality of corresponding sampled and chilled fractional-split-carcass-Lots;
• combining, for the split-carcass-Lot or for each fractional-split-carcass-Lot, the test samples to provide a corresponding composite-split-carcass-Lot test sample or a plurality of corresponding composite-fractional-split-portion-Lot test samples;
• and
• determining, for the split-portion-Lot or for each fractional-split-portion-Lots, by assaying the composite-Lot test sample or a portion thereof with an assay suitable to detect a particular pathogenic or microbial contamination, whether or not the composite-Lot test sample is contaminated thereby, whereby entry of the chilled split-carcass-Lot, or entry of a particular fractional-split-carcass-Lot into the production area is precluded if the corresponding composite-Lot test sample is contaminated, or certified if not contaminated.

A method for certifying a carcass, comprising:

• splitting carcasses of a carcass-Lot to provide a split-carcass-Lot, wherein each split-portion is identifiable with, or otherwise attributable to the split-carcass-Lot;
• obtaining a test sample from at least one test location of at least one split-portion of each carcass, wherein the test samples are obtained prior to chilling of the respective split portions, to produce a sampled and chilled split-carcass-Lot;
• combining the test samples to provide a composite-Lot test sample;
• and
• determining, by assaying the composite-Lot test sample or a portion thereof with an assay suitable to detect a particular pathogenic or microbial contamination, whether or not the composite-Lot test sample is contaminated thereby, whereby each carcass of the chilled split-carcass-Lot is certified if the corresponding composite-Lot test sample is not contaminated.