ABSTRACT
Rabbit meat is increasingly valued for its nutritional characteristics; it is a lean meat with a low fat, cholesterol content and of less saturated fatty acids than any other meats. Rabbit meat is thought to be a safe product since it has not been involved in outbreaks of foodborne disease. Despite this fact; rabbit can carry food-poisoning organisms derived from multiple sources. These pathogens can result in many cases of food poisoning. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the bacteriological quality of rabbit meat in MitGhamr City, Dakahlia Governorate, through determination of Enterobacteriaceae, pseudomonas, and psychrotrophic count. The obtained results revealed that the Enterobacteriaceae counts in the fresh thigh and back meat samples were ranged from 3 to 5 and 4.23 to 5.53 log10cfu/g with mean values of 3.98 ± 0.103 and 4.79 ± 0.094 log10cfu/g respectively, Pseudomonas counts in the fresh thigh and back meat samples were ranged from 4.70 to 7.46 and 5 to 7.38 log10cfu/g with mean values of 5.90 ± 0.134and 5.98 ± 0.124 log10cfu/g respectively, and the Psychrotrophes counts in the fresh thigh and back meat samples were ranged from 4.08 to 7.20 and 4.70 to 6.95 log10cfu/g with mean values of 5.67 ± 0.154 and 6.10 ± 0.101 log10cfu/g respectively.