Economic Impact and Disease Insights: Understanding Organ Condemnation in Cattle Slaughtered at Bahir Dar Abattoir

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Abattoir surveillance is the font of valuable information on the incidence and epidemiology of animal disease, having both public and animal health importance. A cross-sectional study followed by simple random sampling was conducted from December 2021 to May 2022 to identify the major causes of edible offal condemnation and to estimate the financial losses attributed to edible offal condemnation in cattle slaughtered at Bahir Dar municipal abattoir, northwestern Ethiopia, using antemortem and post-mortem examination. RESULT: Out of 334 cattle investigated, 3.6% (12/334) cattle showed detectable abnormalities including diarrhoea in 0.6% (2/12), lameness in 0.9% (3/12) and tick infestation in 1.2% (4/12), and nasal discharge in 0.9% (3/12) in cattle during an antemortem examination. However, in post-mortem examination, 22.16% (74/334) of cattle revealed lesions in visceral organs including the liver (14.6%), lung (9.9%), kidney (1.8%), heart (2.4%) and tongue (0.9%). The major causes that were identified in the current study include calcification, fasciolosis, hydatid cyst, cirrhosis, abscess, pneumonia, haemorrhage, emphysema, congestion, pericarditis, Cysticercus bovis, nephritis and renal calculi. Among the putative risk factors, only body condition was shown to have statistically significant variation (p < 0.05) with the prevalence of major causes of organ condemnation upon post-mortem examination. The overall financial losses incurred due to organ condemnation were estimated to be $475.19, with an annual loss of $15,447.85. CONCLUSION: The current study implies that there was considerable edible offal condemnation resulting in significant economic loss. This instigates that it is crucial to adopt efficient animal management practices, conduct regular health assessments of animals and provide educational programmes for animal owners on disease prevention strategies like deworming to reduce the incidence of organ condemnation and its financial impacts in the region.