A Wash Treatment of "Fit-L" on Cattle for Reduction of Foodborne Pathogens and Its Safety on Eye Evaluation

Introduction: Although considerable effort was applied to reduce E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella on, effective hide treatment for pathogen removal is still needed.  

Purpose:  To evaluate the efficacy of commercial “Fit-L” product as a wash treatment on cattle for reduction of foodborne pathogens. 

Methods: Beef cattle were selected.  The right side of cattle was used for “Fit-L” treatment and left side was used for water-only treatment at 45-55 psi for 30 s.  The face of 3 cattle was washed with “Fit-L and 3 was washed with water-only.  Sponge samples of the hides were collected at before treatment, 5 and 10 min after treatment and enumerated for Escherichia coli.  An eye-drop containing 0.2% levulinic acid plus 0.02% sodium dodecyl sulfate was applied to all eyes of the cattle for observation of any stimulus symptoms.

Results: The average E. coli count before washing was 6.6 log CFU/cm².  For tap water only washed cattle the average E. coli count was 6.0 log CFU/cm² at 5 min and 6.1 log CFU/cm² at 10 min.  Whereas, for “Fit-L”-washed cattle the average E. coli count was 2.6 log CFU/cm² at 5 min and 2.3 log CFU/cm² at 10 min.  These data revealed that a simple “Fit-L” wash could reduce E. coli population by 3.4 log and 3.8 log on the surface of cattle hide at 5 min and 10 min, respectively; when compared with tap-water wash only. A tap water-only wash reduced E. coli by 0.5 log CFU/cm² when compared with samples collected before the wash.  Following “Fit-L” washing with one more tap water wash did not further reduce E. coli on the surface of cattle hides.  The application to use it as an eye-drop did not produce any stimulus symptoms on all cattle eyes.

Significance: These results suggested a simple “Fit-L” wash just before cattle entered the slaughter facility will substantially reduce the population of E. coli on cattle hides.