Improving the Diagnosis of Bacterial Rejections in Ovine Abattoirs by the Use of Simple Protocols

Abstract

Veterinary inspection in abattoirs is extremely important either economic or public health point of view because a great amount of visceras are rejected in order to maintain a low risk for human. However, due to work dynamics in slaughterhouses, it is usually difficult to uncover this etiology. In this study, we applied simple protocols to determine the final diagnosis and the etiology of such rejections. Over the course of a year, organs rejected during meat inspection were sampled from an ovine slaughterhouse in central Spain that slaughtered both sheep and lambs. The application of these protocols were very useful in the identification of bacterial agents involved in those rejections that clinically were compatible with enzootic pneumonia and caseous lymphadenitis as well as abscesses, among others. The regular application of these protocols would provide valuable information to establish control measures of those processes that reach to the slaughterhouses and in consequence to avoid they reach the human food chain.