Microbiological quality of petfood in Poland.

From epidemiological and safety point of view, petfoods produced from edible and non-edible animal by-products should be safe for slaughter animals, owners of these pets and environment. Domestic animals are recognized as highly important reservoir of pathogenic microorganisms for man. The close contact of people and especially children with pets may constitute a serious hazard for their health. Taking these aspects into account, the study was undertaken in which 2271 dried and 18 canned petfood samples were examined. Moreover, 14, 90, 23 and 22 samples of petfoods were examined for presence or number of Clostridium sp., Enterobacteriaceae, total plate count, and yeast and moulds, respectively. Salmonella was isolated from 22 (1%) out of 2271 dried petfood samples examined. Number of Enterobacteriaceae was higher than 300 cfu/g, i.e. the allowed maximum level was found in 9 (10%) samples examined. The rest of microbiological quality parameters did not exceed the allowed values.