Diagnóstico de procesos patológicos en ungulados domésticos sacrificados en matadero en el Sureste de España.

Diagnosis of pathological processes in slaughter-domestic ungulates in South-East of Spain Abattoir Veterinary Inspection is necessary not only for the control of hazards associated with the consumption of meat but also by epidemiological surveillance of diseases affecting animals in a certain region. The purpose of this investigation was to estimate the prevalence of pathological processes which motivate the condemnation of carcasses from animals reared in farms being located in the South-East of Spain. These processes have also been classified concerning the reliability of post mortem diagnosis at abattoir level in order to decide in which cases the macroscopic lesions are specifically enough to guarantee the diagnostic of a disorder or if an external laboratory diagnosis is necessary and to see in which the histopathological examination would be the proper method of choice. A technical survey was conducted in a red meat abattoir located in the South-East of Spain over a period of ten years (from January 2002 to December 2011). Pathological processes led to the condemnation of 137 cattle, 973 lambs, 337 kids and 545 pigs carcasses out of 123,627, 1,846,435, 250,718 and 484,016 animals slaughtered of each respective species were classified. After ante and post mortem examination, if a specific pathological process was suspected, additional tests were performed on site and also tissue samples from 200 of these animals were collected for histopathological examination. The pathological processes diagnosed without resorting to external laboratory tests agree definetily to the macroscopic diagnosis in 100 % of cases (maximum level of diagnostic reliability in abattoir) that were: generalized bovine tuberculosis, skin lesions in swine erysipelas, porcine dermatitis-nephropathy syndrome, chronic pseudotuberculosis, acute porcine pleuropneumonia, porcine proliferative enteropathy, hepatobiliary distomatosis, leukosis, gastric ulcers, melanosis, eosinophilic myositis and urolithiasis. As a fact of bovine cysticercosis post-mortem inspection is enough only when viable cysticerci are detected. The histopathological examination would be the method of choice to establish the differential diagnosis of pathological processes showing granulomatous inflammations such as tuberculosis and granulomatous pneumonia in small ruminants, uncertain etiology processes such as myositis and muscle degeneration and neoplastic processes as leukosis. If the histopathological diagnosis was not performed a 3.70 % of false positives of bovine tuberculosis would be declared. The final results show that the climatic factors and social conditions in this geographic area are influencing the animal production systems, impacting on the prevalence of the diagnosed pathological processes. The higher rates of pre-slaughter deaths were observed in kids (11.41 ‰0) with a statistically significant (p<0.01) increase in transport during the winter months. In the same species the higher percentage of carcass condemnation was malnutrition (41.54 %). The prevalence…