Trimming and production losses associated with bacterial arthritis in lambs presented to an abattoir in southern Australia

Abstract

Bacterial arthritis in sheep is a painful and debilitating condition that is widespread across all sheep-raising regions and climatic zones of Australia. At slaughter, bacterial arthritis in sheep causes economic losses through the condemnation of all or parts of the carcass, as specified in the Australian Standard for the Hygienic Production and Transportation of Meat and Meat Products for Human Consumption. In this study, we investigated the economic cost of arthritis in lambs presenting to an abattoir in southern Australia using a combination of the prevalence of arthritis detected during meat inspection, condemnation rates, trim weight and carcass weight, and fat measurements. Data were collected on 354 lines of lambs representing 63287 carcasses. One hundred and sixty nine consignments, or approximately one-half of the consignments, had at least one carcass with arthritis/polyarthritis detected by meat inspection personnel. Four hundred and twenty-two, or 0.7%, of the carcasses had arthritis/polyarthritis in at least one joint. When arthritis was present, on average 2.0% of the line was affected. Three carcasses with arthritis were condemned and the remainder trimmed, with an average trim weight of 0.7 kg. In addition, arthritis reduced the growth of lambs by 1.2 kg hot standard carcass weight, approximately 2.7 kg liveweight (assuming 45% dressing percentage) and reduced fat cover by 1.8 mm.

Sustainable lamb production: Evaluation of factors affecting lamb growth using hierarchical, cross classified and multiple memberships models

“…It has been reported that most causes of polyarthritis in sheep are of bacterial origin (Watkins and Sharp, 1998). The size of the effect of a case on lamb weight (2.2 kg weight reduction,) was comparable to the estimate of a recent abattoir study (2.7 kg weight difference) that evaluated deadweight of carcasses with and without lesions of bacterial polyarthritis (Lloyd et al, 2019). Results of the current study indicated that after a case, lambs did not recover their weight and remained lighter than healthy lambs.…”

Impacts of major health conditions affecting the Australian sheepmeat value chain: a review

“…For processors, some parts of the carcase are worth more than others (high‐ and low‐value primal cuts), and this review identified two studies that examined the location and trim weight of the affected primal cuts. Lloyd et al 34 examined the impact of the combination of liveweight and trimming weight loss for arthritis and the number and types of joints affected. However, the average weight of trim was reported without the nature of the joint(s) affected.…”