Abstract
BackgroundThere is a general consensus in recognizing that traditional meat inspection is no longer able to address the hazards related to meat consumption. Moreover, it has been shown that invasive procedures, such as palpation and incision, can increase microbial contamination in carcasses. For these reasons, legislations all over the world are changing meat inspection techniques, moving towards visual-only techniques. Hence, there was also the need to test visual-only inspection in pigs in Italy.ResultsA protocol for visual-only post-mortem inspection was produced together with a 24-class scheme used to record pathological lesions. A list of guidelines needed for univocal interpretation and classification of lesions was developed. To record lesions at the slaughtering line, a light instrument that is resistant to the slaughter environment was designed and then produced in collaboration with an electro-medical company. Six contracted veterinarians were chosen and trained. They performed visual-only post-mortem inspections on 231.673 heavy pigs in three different slaughterhouses of Northern Italy. Visual-only inspection was compared to traditional inspection on 38.819 pig carcasses. No relevant differences were found between the two systems.ConclusionsThe comparison between traditional and visual-only inspection showed that visual-only inspection can be adopted in pig slaughterhouse. The analysis of the performance of the veterinarians stressed the importance of standardization and continuous education for veterinarians working in this field.
Highlights
IntroductionIt has been shown that invasive procedures, such as palpation and incision, can increase microbial contamination in carcasses
There is a general consensus in recognizing that traditional meat inspection is no longer able to address the hazards related to meat consumption
Back in 2011, EFSA [2] stated that the traditional inspection system in swine is not targeted to the main hazards deriving from meat consumption
Summary
It has been shown that invasive procedures, such as palpation and incision, can increase microbial contamination in carcasses For these reasons, legislations all over the world are changing meat inspection techniques, moving towards visual-only techniques. Back in 2011, EFSA [2] stated that the traditional inspection system in swine is not targeted to the main hazards deriving from meat consumption. The regulation stated that starting in June 2014, post-mortem inspection in domestic swine should only be visual and that the official veterinarians shall proceed with additional post-mortem inspection procedures using incision and palpation of the carcass and offal when, in his or her opinion, clinical signs and Ghidini et al BMC Veterinary Research (2018) 14:6 lesions may indicate a possible risk to public health, animal health or animal welfare
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