There is increasing demand by the public for assurance of an economical, high quality and safe food supply. Microbial contamination of foods at slaughter is of increased interest, because one of the primary sources of carcass contamination is from feces. Thus, from a food safety perspective, a HACCP critical control point is the late finishing stage and how pigs are handled from farm to slaughter. Segregated early weaning systems produce pigs in fewer days to market than continuous flow systems, with higher health status and fewer respiratory pathogens. Feed is withheld from pigs during shipping, however, fasting reduces the inhibitory effect of the normal intestinal microflora and could potentially result in increased fecal pathogen levels. Thus, the objectives of this research project were: I) compare multi-site SEW versus continuous flow rearing of swine on incidence of fecal pathogens of human health significance, 2) compare the effect of 24 hour fasting versus full feeding on the intestinal pathogen concentrations at slaughter with pathogen positive pigs, 3) assess the incidence of carcass contamination in pathogen positive and representative control swine.