EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Three years ago Russia banned kangaroo meat exports from Australia after finding high levels of bacterial contamination.

The Australian Government and kangaroo industry have worked hard in a bid to convince the Russians to lift the ban.

But animal rights groups want the Russians to keep the ban in place and they've conducted tests on kangaroo meat in Australian supermarkets.

Some of the tests show high levels of the bacteria E. coli.

The kangaroo industry says the tests are not scientific and it claims animal rights groups are extremists.

John Stewart reports.

JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: It's a long way from the Queensland Outback to supermarkets in the big city. But this is where kangaroo meat begins its journey to the table. Kangaroo shooters store the carcasses in mobile refrigerators known as chillers and later drive the meat to processing plants.

These chillers near the Queensland town of Charleville were filmed by Animal Liberation last year after a tip-off from a shooter.

MARK PEARSON, ANIMAL LIBERATION NSW: They are filthy. It is impossible, even with the best will in the word, to maintain them, to keep them hygienic, pristine, as would be the case for export meat for human consumption.

This is the sanitary area for washing up. There's obviously a lot of dirt around. Very unhygienic.

JOHN STEWART: Animal rights groups are using the hygiene issue as a weapon to try and close down the industry, worth $75 million a year.

MARK PEARSON: I asked him to stand up on the platform with me in the chiller and jump up and down on the floor. And then all this muck and effluent just kept oozing out from underneath. Now that sits there fermenting all the time that carcasses come and go and come and go and go off to a processing plant in a truck.

JOHN STEWART: As part of their campaign, the animal rights groups purchased kangaroo meat for human consumption from Coles, Woolworths and IGA supermarkets in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and had the samples tested in an independent laboratory.

Eight of the 26 kangaroo samples tested positive for the bacteria salmonella and 11 samples showed relatively high levels of E. coli bacteria.

DROR BEN-AMI, ECOLOGIST, VOICELESS: Some of the levels of E. coli that we're finding are actually very disturbing. I mean, they're just at such high levels that the meat is just off, I mean, it's just completely off. Not all, just some of the samples at that level.

But when we compared what we found in kangaroo meat to, for instance, lamb, which is manufactured in a similar way, you don't have that level of contamination.

JOHN STEWART: Woolworths's quality assurance standard for raw meat allows for an E. coli count of less than 10 colony-forming units per gram of meat.

The kangaroo mince, which animal rights groups say came from this store in North Lakes Brisbane, produced an E. coli count of 46,000 colony forming units per gram and tested positive for salmonella.

At this IGA in Cremorne, Sydney, kangaroo meat showed an E. coli level of 24,000 per gram and tested positive for salmonella.

At the Neutral Bay Coles store in Sydney, kangaroo meat showed an E. coli level of 11,000, but did not test positive to salmonella.

There are many different types of E. coli and only some are dangerous for humans. The tests did not specify which types of E. coli were in the meat.

According to animal rights groups, samples of lamb from the same supermarkets came up clean.

MARK PEARSON: The lamb results were almost nil, certainly absolutely nil for salmonella and extremely minimal for E. coli. Where compared to the kangaroo products, which were just off the wall.

JOHN STEWART: Associate Professor Vitali Sintchenko is a specialist at the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Sydney's Westmead Hospital. He says that meat from game caught in the wild generally has higher levels of E. coli compared to meat from farm animals.

The microbiologist says the presence of salmonella is a concern, but more tests are needed to assess the results.

VITALI SINTCHENKO, MICROBIOLOGIST, WESTMEAD HOSPITAL: Salmonella is a recognised food-borne pathogen And food which is contaminated with salmonella can present a risk to a human being. At the same time, the risk of infection and risk of disease depends on a number of bacteria present in a food sample. Unfortunately, in this result, we can't see any quantitative data on the amount of salmonella which is present in tested samples.

JOHN STEWART: Associate Professor Sintchenko says that salmonella and high levels of E. coli can be dangerous if wild or so-called game meat is cooked rare.

VITALI SINTCHENKO: This is the very specific indicator to warn potential consumers about the necessity to cook this meat, especially game meat, properly.

MALE INSTRUCTOR (kangaroo industry video): Season your kangaroo loin fillet quite well and place into the hot pan. Once you place the flattened kangaroo in the pan, leave it on one side for around about one minute.

JOHN STEWART: But the Kangaroo Industry Association's website advises consumers to cook the meat medium rare.

KANGAROO INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION WEBSITE (female voiceover): This will seal the meat up to prevent moisture loss. If pan frying, the temperature can be turned down a little and the cut cooked to medium rare.

JOHN STEWART: Coles provided no comment. When approached by Lateline, a spokesman for Woolworths said the company was now doing its own testing of kangaroo meat products.

WOOLWORTHS SPOKESMAN (male voiceover): We take food safety extremely seriously. We work closely with all our suppliers to ensure their products adhere to Australian standards.

JOHN STEWART: The Kangaroo Industry Association says the laboratory results are not scientific because there is no way of knowing how the meat was transported from the supermarkets to the laboratory or how long it took to get there, and no independent scrutiny of the process.

But the animal rights groups say the meat samples were placed in cold storage boxes, packed with ice and transported to the laboratory within eight hours and claim the handling of the meat would not have created an explosion of E. coli.

The Kangaroo Industry Association declined an interview, but told Lateline:

KANGAROO INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA (female voiceover): Simply put, kangaroo is produced with extremely tight government control. All produce is subject to micro testing regimes at the processing premises and must comply with acceptable limits.

JOHN STEWART: The New South Wales Food Authority said in a statement:

NSW FOOD AUTHORITY (male voiceover): There are no microbiological limits which apply to raw meat products and the NSW Food Authority advises that kangaroo meat, as with any meat product, is safe for consumption if correct handling and cooking requirements are complied with.

JOHN STEWART: Associate Professor Sintchenko says that illness from eating kangaroo meat is extremely rare.

VITALI SINTCHENKO: We haven't seen any cases of food poisoning from - that we know of in New South Wales in the last five or six years coming from kangaroo meat.

JOHN STEWART: The kangaroo industry also claims there has never been a recorded case of food poisoning from kangaroo meat in Australia. Now the industry is lobbying the Russians to reopen the meat trade. But last month, Animal Liberation took their lab results to Russia to try to persuade authorities there to continue the ban.

MARK PEARSON: They are doomed because they cannot get the industry up to the standard. And they've had three years with a lot of money and some incentive and they haven't got it anywhere near what is required.

JOHN STEWART: The Russian embassy says that before any decision is made about lifting the ban on kangaroo meat, a special delegation will visit Australia to inspect kangaroo meat processing in city and country areas.

John Stewart, Lateline.

EMMA ALBERICI: And full statements from the New South Wales Food Authority, the Department of Agriculture and the kangaroo industry are now available on the Lateline website.

Read the statement from the Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia.

Read the statement from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Read the statement from the New South Wales Food Authority.