COVID–19 in meat plants: activation of a Target Prevention Plan, in Italy

During the COVID–19 pandemics, several outbreaks have been recorded all other the world in industrial slaughterhouses and meat processing plants. Occupational preventive medicine in such non-healthcare frontline essential services accounts for combined different environmental, social, and economic factors, to reduce the burden of COVID–19 in the workplaces and in the connected residential settings. In Italy, during the first year of the pandemics, an advocacy action has been activated, targeted on meat plant managers and related food business operators. A risk–oriented control plan was agreed by competent Italian Health Authorities at Region/Province level. A questionnaire focused on the inventoried risk factors reported in the literature in such working places have been developed as supporting tool, and administered on voluntary basis to the interested stakeholders. In addition, an outbreak questionnaire was proposed to the Prevention Depts of the Local Health Units. In the 2021 – 2022 years timeframe, we collected 333 advocacy and 24 outbreak questionnaires, respectively, on 4,765 inventoried plants at national level. Responses came mainly from those districts that locally activated the risk-oriented control plan. The lack of awareness to update the Risk Assessment Document of the meat plant for COVID–19, non instrumental body Temperature checks of workers at the entrance, working force from different subcontractors, poor hygiene in the shared places and insufficient ventilation represented the main critical points recorded. The cross–checks between the results from the advocacy and from the outbreak questionnaires are feeding an after–action review for such food–chain related essential work settings within a One Health approach. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: N/A I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors