The counts of each microbial group for refrigerated rabbit meat
are shown on Table 1, revealing high variability at the beginning of
incubation time. The log counts for most groups of microorganisms
showed a range of more than 2 except for lactic acid bacteria. The
variation in counts observed for these bacteria was within
1.5 log CFU’s. Mesophilic aerobes, psychrotrophic aerobes, Pseudomonas
spp. and lactic acid bacteria were present in all samples.
Yeast and moulds and Enterobacteriaceae were below the detection
limit in one and 6 samples out of 12, respectively. Mean total counts
of mesophilic aerobes and psychrotrophic aerobes were not
significantly different (p < 0.05) while were significantly higher
than the mean counts for Pseudomonas, lactic acid bacteria and
yeast and moulds (p < 0.05). Finally, Pseudomonas and lactic acid
bacteria showed the same mean counts (p < 0.05).
The mean microbial counts and respective high variability are in
agreement with other reports, reflecting the heterogeneity of meat
contamination after slaughter in rabbit abattoirs. The counts of
Pseudomonas and lactic acid bacteria were within the range of
values reported by Rodríguez-Calleja et al. (2004, 2005). Aerobic
psychrotrophic counts were lower than those mentioned by Badr
(2004) and Rodríguez-Calleja et al. (2004). Berruga et al. (2005)
found lower counts for mesophiles, lactic acid bacteria, Pseudomonas
and Enterobacteriaceae, which could be attributed to the