<Meat is by no means sterile, if by that you mean free from germs and
viruses. I read an estimate that cells often have viruses in them, numerous
ones. Bacteria are very small and meat can be teeming with them and still be
"fresh."


Muscle (meat) is sterile tissue in the animal.  Once slaughtered, meat is an
excellent medium for supporting normally harmless spoilage bacteria.  But
meat can also be contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms.

Viruses only live inside of other cells.  Viruses don't actually grow in
number to an infective dose like bacteria do in a hazardous product.  We say
that viruses use food as a "highway" (as opposed to a growth medium).

The meat you buy at the supermarket will have thousands of bacteria on it
per gram.  The vast majority of that bacteria will be harmless, spoilage
bacteria.  In the case of poultry, however, a greater proportion of birds
are contaminated with salmonella or camplylobacter bacteria, largely due the
various stresses of 'factory farming'.

<I agree that it is a problem when processing brings bacteria that belong in
a certain place (the gut) of an animal into contact with a place where it
doesn't belong (muscle meat.) Is this what you are talking about?>

I think that I made a few points.  But I agree that we should minimize
contamination from the gut to the muscle during slaughtering, holding, and
handling.

Rob