Parasitic infections as major cause of abattoir condemnations in cattle slaughtered at an Ethiopian abattoir: 10-year retrospective study

Abstract

Abattoirs are vital for gathering information on animal diseases and protecting the public from consuming infected or unhygienic meat. To assess the major reasons for organ and carcass condemnations and their financial implications, we reviewed 10-year abattoir records of slaughtered bovines between January 2005 and December 2014 at Kombolcha ELFORA abattoir, north-east Ethiopia. Of the 46,913 cattle slaughtered during that period, 17,963 (38.3%) had at least one disease condition. Lungs (10.67%) and liver (25%) were the most affected and condemned organs, followed by heart (1.53%), head (0.56%), tongue (0.17%) and kidney (0.32%). The major conditions responsible for condemnation were fasciolosis (49.89%), hydatid cyst (55.55%), pericarditis (78.2%), hydronephrosis (35.8%), abscess (71.7%) and abscess (43.9%), in liver, lung, heart, kidneys, head and tongue, respectively. The direct financial losses incurred from organ and carcass condemnation over the 10-year period amounted to ETB 1,219,399 (USD 61,946.9), with parasitic diseases such as fascioliasis and hydatidosis accounting for ETB 256,837.5 (USD 13,047.64) and ETB 170,827.5 (USD 8678.23) in losses, respectively. This study describes a significant loss of cheap and reliable sources of protein due to non-utilization of infected organs or carcasses, emphasizing the need to implement integrated approaches in disease surveillance and control programmes.

Analysis of bovine postmortem condemnation data in France: Contributions from a comprehensive and standardised information system at the slaughterhouse

“…These rates appeared higher compared to some publications that reported rates in adult cattle of 2% in the USA, 11 1.4% in Turkey, 15 0.8% in Tanzania 13 and 0.2% in Ethiopia. 16 These differences may be explained by varying health situations and inspection practices. For example, Molla et al 16 stated that, in Ethiopia, no carcases were fully condemned due to economic considerations, which may explain the low GCR.…”

“…Furthermore, of the existing information systems that have been presented in the literature, almost none of them allowed data to be centralised at a national level. 6,7,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] These elements therefore constitute an obstacle to the continuous accessibility of data in a harmonised and usable format. Moreover, the studies that deal with the condemnation of beef carcases and offal are difficult to compare.…”

“…Moreover, some studies only presented total condemnation rates (TCRs), without taking partial condemnation into account, [9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and other studies were only focused on partial condemnations. 8,16 With respect to reasons for condemnation, the terminology for coding PMI outcomes varied substantially, again challenging comparison between studies. Finally, some studies were not based on harmonised reference guidelines for the detection of postmortem findings, or the authors did not made them available, which also limited the use that could be made of the produced data.…”

Main causes of cattle slaughter condemnation under the state sanitary inspection in Bahia, Brazil

“…In Brazil, most of the slaughterhouse condemnations are due to parasitic lesions, such as hydatidosis, cysticercosis, and fasciolosis [4], which are also the reason for most condemnations in other developing countries such as Sudan, Iran, and Ethiopia (Molla, Nazir, Mohammed, & Tintagu, 2020;Kheder & Mohamed, 2021;Khedri et al, 2021). However, different causes of carcass and organ condemnation can show higher condemnation rates depending on the region of the country, the sanitary inspection and the technology used for animal husbandry and handling.…”

Major Causes and Associated Economic Losses of Carcass and Organ Condemnation in Cattle and Sheep in the Northern Part of Palestine.

“…In Bursa province, Turkey, carcasses were condemned mainly due to tuberculosis and jaundice, and organ condemnation was mainly due to hydatidosis and fasciolosis (Yibar et al, 2015). Parasitic infestations were the major DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.36380/scil.2019.wvj40 cause of abattoir condemnations in many parts of Africa (Jaja et al, 2017;Nasir and Abebe, 2016;Negero and Ferede, 2017;Molla et al, 2019). Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia and tuberculosis were the major causes of carcass and organ condemnations in Ghana (Jarikre et al, 2014;Mohammed et al, 2018).…”