For many years microbiologists believed that the tissues of healthy animals normally contained bacteria (Reith, 1926; Ingram, 1972). These ‘intrinsic’ bacteria were the cause of phenomena such as ‘bone taint’. The cause of bone taint is still questioned and will be discussed prevailing view of the majority of textbooks (Banwart, 1989;Varnam and Sutherland, 1995), based in part on the work of Gill (Gill, 1979, 1980) is that the meat of a healthy animal is essentially sterile. Low numbers of specific micro - organisms,which have reached the tissues during the life of the animal,may occur in the viscera and associated.
