Impact of the sampling method and chilling on the Salmonella recovery from pig carcasses

•The chilling system has no influence on the recovery of Salmonella.•The number of positive carcasses before and after chilling was not changed significantly.•The preferred sampling method after chilling is the destruction method.

Differences in recovery of Salmonella on pig carcasses using non-destructive and destructive sampling methods is not well understood in respect to the chilling processes applied in slaughterhouses.Therefore, in two slaughterhouses, four strains at two different concentrations were inoculated onto pork skin. Inoculated skin samples were sampled before and after chilling with two sampling methods: swabbing and destruction. Both slaughterhouses were visited three times and all tests were performed in triplicate. All samples were analysed using the ISO-method and recovered isolates were confirmed by PFGE.The chilling system (fast or conventional cooling) nor the sampling step (before and after chilling) did not significantly influence the recovery of Salmonella. However, swabbing after chilling leads to an underestimation of the real number of contaminated carcasses. Therefore, destructive sampling is the more designated sampling method after chilling.