RESUMO
Objective. To determine the prevalence of L. monocytogenes in pork carcasses, meat cuts, and meat products (chorizo, sausage and ham). Materials and methods. Stratified sampling was implemented in meat-processed products. We analyzed 566 (37%) carcasses, 472 (31%) meat cuts, and 481, (32%) meat-processed products, distributed as follows: 169 (11%) sausage, 163 (11%) ham, and 149 (10%) chorizo, for a total of 1519 (100%) samples in a period of 18 months. The samples were processed using the ISO-17604, ISO-11290-1 and the USDA/FSIS (MLG-8.03) methods. Genus and species were confirmed by multiplex-PCR. Results. We obtained isolates of L. monocytogenes from 21 carcasses (10%), 160 (76%) from meat deboning, 10 (5%) from ham, 6 (3%) from chorizo, and 13 (6%) from sausage. The prevalence found was 3.7% and 33.9% in carcasses and meat deboning respectively. The prevalence in the meat-processed products was 4.03% in chorizo, 6.13% in ham and 7.69% in sausage. The overall prevalence of L. monocytogenes in the study was 13.82%. Conclusions. We found L. monocytogenes in different products analyzed, with particular interest in ham and sausage since both are consumed without previous heat treatment.