IMPLICATION OFF CLINICAL PATHOLOGY IN ASSESSMENT OF ANIMAL HEALTH ANDIN ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND MEAT INSPECTION

Clinical, zootechnical and industrial developments of the last decades have led to new ideas on monitoring systems for animal production and meat Quality assessment systems, integrated risk assessment concernin g consumer's health and monitoring for infectious animal diseases, are more relevant today than pathomorphological control of individual sub jects. Published papers on investigations to assess slaughtered animal s by blood variables of classical clinical pathology and by measuring acute phase reactants, are mentioned. Most papers deal with ruminants giving good perspectives for the acute phase proteins in that species. Only limited literature is available regarding acute phase proteins i n swine; zinc and iron have been shown to be of little value for gener al health monitoring in swine. Preliminary studies on limited numbers of finishing pigs showed good prospects for the development of species specific assays for acute phase proteins for future practical use in the slaughterhouse, Isolation procedures for porcine haptoglobin (HP), serum amyloid A (SAA) and C reactive protein (CRP) are described. It is suggested that for monitoring individual animals, the signal of acu te phase variable can be amplified considerably by applying an acute p hase index (API) combining positive x negative reactants(-1). Calculat ions on the original data from a former investigation on 233 non-healt hy and 21 control cattle gave excellent results for an API. Similar st udies are in progress for swine.