A recently discovered source for infection of slaughter pigs, and thus entry for bacteria into the food chain, is the installed drinking equipment in lairage pens of pig abattoirs. To mitigate this, nano-coating of stainless steel, currently used in human medicine fields as well as in other parts of the food chain, appears as promising technology. In this study, silicon dioxide nano-coating was applied to six drinkers and installed for one and three months in a lairage of a pig abattoir, while results were compared with those of drinkers that had not been nano-coated. Laboratory examination of eight sample types related to the drinkers was conducted for total aerobic plate count, Enterobacteriaceae count, Pseudomonas spp. count, Salmonella presence, pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica presence, Listeria monocytogenes presence and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus presence. The nipple drinker, which the pigs take into their mouth for drinking, was then examined using scanning electron microscopy and elemental analysis. The nano-coating did not produce statistically significant reductions in the loads or presence of these bacteria compared to the same but uncoated drinking equipment used under the same conditions. Further studies should focus on the implementation of combined methods, such as nano-coating and sanitary treatment, as well as modifications to the coating itself, to produce meaningful reductions of the bacterial loads on/in abattoir lairage drinking equipment.

Institute of Biometry Epidemiology and Information Processing WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training for Health at the Human Animal Environment Interface University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover 30559 Hannover Germany

Institute of Food Safety and Food Hygiene Working Group Meat Hygiene School of Veterinary Medicine Freie Universität Berlin 14163 Berlin Germany

Institute of Veterinary Anatomy Histology and Embryology Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Leipzig 04103 Leipzig Germany

Veterinary Centre for Resistance Research School of Veterinary Medicine Freie Universität Berlin 14163 Berlin Germany

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