Major Causes of Organ Condemnations and Its Economic Implications in Cattle Slauughtered at Kombolcha Elfora Abattoir, Northeastern, Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross sectional study from November 2016 to April 2017 and two years retrospective study were conducted at Kombolcha ELFORA abattoir. Ante mortem examinations to the slaughtered cattle were carried out at the lairage during this their origin, sex, age and body conditions were recorded, followed by post mortem examinations using their identification numbers given at ante mortem. Potential risk factors were analyzed and found that there was statistically significant difference between body conditions of animals (p˂ 0.05). However no significant difference was seen in age and sex of animals. Out of 2000 organs belonging to 400 slaughtered animals examined at postmortem 105(26.25%) livers, 79 (19.75%) lungs, 33(8.25%) hearts, 35 (8.75%) kidneys and 25 (6.25%) tongue were rejected due to various causes. The major causes of these condemnations were cirrhosis (11%) for liver; pneumonia (5.25%) for lung; hemorrhage (3.25%) for kidney; hydated cyst (3%) for heart and ulcer (2.75%) for tongue. From a retrospective data of 9811 cattle slaughtered, it was found that lung (46.6%), kidney (42.6%), liver (38.3%), heart (19.22%) and tongue (6.5%) were condemned due to pneumonia, nephritis, hepatitis, oedema and abscess with respective rates of 13.6%, 10.8%, 15.64%, 4.56% and 2.1%. A direct annual financial loss of 342,574.98 ETB (9,578.55 USD) was estimated within three years 121,310.48 ETB (5,251.54 USD) per annum from the active abattoir survey study and 221,264.5 ETB (9578.55 USD) from the retrospective data investigation. The result warrants, the need of public awareness about the effects of animal disease and proper disposal of condemned organs must be practiced in order to break the life cycle of some of the parasitic disease.

Keywords: Abattoir, Ante and Postmortem inspection, Cattle, Condemnation, Economic loss, Kombolcha ELFORA.