Resumen de Estimación meta-analítica de la reducción de coliformes totales en canales de bovino debido al enfriamiento

Ursula Gonzales Barrón, V. Cadavez, F. Butler

• The objective of this work was to use meta-analysis to quantify the overall effect of conventional chilling of Irish beef carcasses on the concentration of total coliforms. Nine independent studies concerning the efect of conventional chilling of Irish beef carcasses on the concentration of total coliforms were used. In each study (slaughterhouse), swabs of 10 000 cm2 from one side of the carcass were obtained before carcasses chilling and the same procedure was applied on the other side of the carcass after 24 h of chilling, and the total coliforms (log CFU/cm2) were quantified. To account for the variability or heterogeneity (2=0.288; p<0.001) in the effect size (measured by the nine primary studies), a randomeffects model was preferred. This model confirmed that chilling reduces (p<0.001) the viability of coliforms in 1 log CFU/cm2 (95% CI: 1.5 - 0.70 log). Next, study characteristics could be extracted from the primary studies to further explain the high between-study heterogeneity.