Abstract
Simple SummaryThe pig sector represents one of the most economically important farming sectors in the European Union. Farmers and their veterinarians are responsible for ensuring animal health as well as sending healthy animals for slaughter. At slaughter, official veterinarians conduct meat inspections to ensure that only meat fit for human consumption enters the food processing chain. The data collected during meat inspections can provide valuable information about herd health for the farmers, the attending veterinarians and veterinary authorities. The aim of this study was to describe the data and analyse whether these data are suitable to be used as a feedback system for farmers to enable them to improve their herd management. Data used comprised all meat inspection findings in 2016 from 4.6 million pigs originating from 9172 agricultural holdings (farms) and slaughtered in 66 slaughterhouses in Austria. Analysis showed that diseases of the lung (pneumonia, 21.9%) and of the liver (milk spots, 19.9%) were most frequently detected. The agricultural holdings, the slaughterhouses and the time periods (quarter) had an influence on the observed occurrence and composition of the prevalence of post-mortem findings. Furthermore, within the slaughterhouses, the recorded patterns of pathological findings differed, which points towards the need for further harmonisation to provide high-quality feedback to farmers and veterinarians.Meat inspection data can provide valuable information about herd health to producers, veterinarians and veterinary authorities and can be used as a feedback system for farmers to improve their herd management. The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of agricultural holdings, slaughterhouses and time periods (quarters) on the occurrence and composition of the prevalence of post-mortem findings of 4 million pigs slaughtered in Austria in 2016, by applying a permutation multivariate analysis of variance. Pneumonia (21.9%) and milk spots (19.9%) were the most frequently recorded conditions. Our analysis indicated a statistically significant influence of all three considered factors (agricultural holdings, slaughterhouses and periods) on the prevalence of post-mortem findings. The observed prevalence could not only be explained by the differences between the farms of origin and slaughterhouses but also by the variability within the slaughterhouses. Much of the explained variance of the prevalence was due to differences between producers (mean R2 = 0.61), followed by slaughterhouses (mean R2 = 0.19) and period (mean R2 = 0.05). To meet the demand for a valid feedback system to farmers and attending veterinarians, a robust and ideally more detailed recording of frequent pathologies, especially those affecting the respiratory tract and the liver, should be developed.
Highlights
The pig sector represents one of the most economically important farming sectors in the European Union, making up 8.5% of the EuropeanGross Value Added (GVA) for agriculture
Other studies indicated that the frequency of pathological findings depends on the farm management and related health status of the pigs [9,10,11], and on the veterinarians who carried out the meat inspections [12,13,14,15,16,17], slaughterhouses [12], and seasonal occurrence of certain lesions [9,12,18,19]
The aims of this study were (i) to provide information about the prevalence of the individual pathologies and abnormalities recorded at post-mortem meat inspection, (ii) to identify potential influencing factors on the prevalence of these findings, and to determine the variation of the prevalence explained by these factors
Summary
The pig sector represents one of the most economically important farming sectors in the European Union, making up 8.5% (total value: EUR 34.4 billion) of the EuropeanGross Value Added (GVA) for agriculture. Records on meat inspection findings of pig carcases are considered valuable indicators of financial losses due to morbidity of the animals [4,5,6,7]. Other studies indicated that the frequency of pathological findings depends on the farm management and related health status of the pigs [9,10,11], and on the veterinarians who carried out the meat inspections [12,13,14,15,16,17], slaughterhouses [12], and seasonal occurrence of certain lesions [9,12,18,19]. Most other studies assessed the influencing factors in individual slaughterhouses [17,20] or for single pathological findings [18]
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