Suchergebnisse

All slaughter animals are examined before and after slaughter by an Official Veterinarian. Findings of diseases and conditions that could affect public health or animal health have to be reported to the management of the abattoir and the private veterinarian as well as the farmer of the farm of origin. The abattoir provides a vast amount of information on zoonotic and notifiable diseases, as well as diseases relevant for animal husbandry or on-farm animal health. Notifiable diseases can be identified through clinical signs (e.g. foot-and-mouth disease), but in specific cases samples are taken for serological surveillance (e.g. Aujeszky's disease). Surveillance and monitoring schemes are generally based on the Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the World Organisation for Animal Health. Bovine tuberculosis is another example of a disease for which monitoring and surveillance is often entirely based on abattoir detection. For transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE's) abattoir sampling constitutes an important proportion of all samples taken. Monitoring of public health threats, including diseases such as trichinellosis and cysticercosis, remains an important element of the inspection practices in the abattoir. Monitoring of trichinellosis can be risk-based: only pigs expected to be at a higher risk of infection are included in the testing regime. Abattoir sampling is also used for assessment of compliance with legislation on residues of antimicrobial drugs in meat. The number of samples is small, but the sampling itself has a preventive effect. An important category of diseases are those relevant for the performance on farm. Some examples are lung and heart lesions, as well as several parasitic diseases such as liver fluke. Indicators for welfare problems on-farm may also appear at slaughter. Foot lesions in poultry and tail biting in pigs are some examples. Abattoir information is easy and cheap to come by and is underutilised at the moment, particularly to feed into animal health management on farm. It ...

The use of food waste as animal feed could contribute to a more circular and sustainable food production. Feeding swill (consumption phase food waste) however, is historically associated with disease transmission to animals and humans. The aim of this paper is to review the microbial health hazards of feeding swill to farm animals, with a focus on pigs and poultry. First, the current European food waste legislation is described. In literature 60 articles describing the hazards of feeding swill to pigs and poultry were identified. Most of the articles focus on viruses, mainly at the level of animal feed and animal-based food products. Articles describing bacterial hazards and also information on the microbial hazards on the level of kitchen and table waste and food consumption level were lacking. Described management factors related to swill feeding are factors such as herd size, management practices and biosecurity. This study shows that feeding kitchen and food waste to pigs and poultry includes various microbial health hazards. Many microbial hazards in animal feed can be overcome by adequate (heat) treatments, good facilities and strict regulations. However, also other hazards, such as non-infectious pathogens, physical and chemical hazards need more insight.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are an important public health concern. Since the emergence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) during the 1980s and its link with human Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, active surveillance has been a key element of the European Union's TSE control strategy. Success of this strategy means that now, very few cases are detected compared with the number of animals tested. Refining surveillance strategies would enable resources to be redirected towards other public health priorities. Cost-effectiveness analysis was performed on several alternative strategies involving reducing the number of animals tested for BSE and scrapie in Great Britain and, for scrapie, varying the ratio of sheep sampled in the abattoir to fallen stock (which died on the farm). The most cost-effective strategy modelled for BSE involved reducing the proportion of fallen stock tested from 100% to 75%, producing a cost saving of ca GBP 700,000 per annum. If 50% of fallen stock were tested, a saving of ca GBP 1.4 million per annum could be achieved. However, these reductions are predicted to increase the period before surveillance can detect an outbreak. For scrapie, reducing the proportion of abattoir samples was the most costeffective strategy modelled, with limited impact on surveillance effectiveness.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are an important public health concern. Since the emergence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) during the 1980s and its link with human Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, active surveillance has been a key element of the European Union's TSE control strategy. Success of this strategy means that now, very few cases are detected compared with the number of animals tested. Refining surveillance strategies would enable resources to be redirected towards other public health priorities. Cost-effectiveness analysis was performed on several alternative strategies involving reducing the number of animals tested for BSE and scrapie in Great Britain and, for scrapie, varying the ratio of sheep sampled in the abattoir to fallen stock (which died on the farm). The most cost-effective strategy modelled for BSE involved reducing the proportion of fallen stock tested from 100% to 75%, producing a cost saving of ca GBP 700,000 per annum. If 50% of fallen stock were tested, a saving of ca GBP 1.4 million per annum could be achieved. However, these reductions are predicted to increase the period before surveillance can detect an outbreak. For scrapie, reducing the proportion of abattoir samples was the most cost-effective strategy modelled, with limited impact on surveillance effectiveness.