Monitoring of animal health at abattoirs

The collection of pathological findings obtained from the examination of an imal organs at the slaughterhouse is an essential step in the establishment of integrated quality assurance systems. Animal health monitoring comprise s repeated examinations and biometric evaluations of results from organ ins pections on randomly selected carcasses that are representative of the enti re pig population. Within the scope of eight inspection runs in eight slaug hterhouses in 1999 and 2000, selected organic changes were assessed in the course of meat inspection by two inspectors. The viscera were subjected to examinations for selected changes in the liver, heart, lung, parietal pleur a and the carcass for changes in the joints, skin and costal pleura. The in spection of a total of 66 033 carcasses revealed that an average of 43.7% o f the pigs exhibited different degrees of pneumonia. 22.7% of the examined animals showed chronic pleuritis and 6.8% chronic pericarditis. Various deg rees of milk spot lesions were observed in 45.6% of the livers examined. Ar thritis or polyarthritis was diagnosed in 0.5% and mange in 9.8% of the cas es. The aim is to reduce the prevalence of pathological-anatomical organic changes by taking appropriate measures in the herd. This is necessary in or der to safeguard the economic situation both of farmers and slaughterhouses .