About 2,000 cattle are condemned at Canadian slaughter plants each year but the number has been going down since 2013.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarians condemn about 0.15 percent of cattle presented for inspection in federal facilities in the West, said Eway Abel, a CFIA veterinary specialist for western area operations.
She presented the top five reasons for carcass condemnation in Western Canada at a recent University of Calgary veterinary conference.
There is continuing room for improvement.
“Can the beef industry collectively work towards reducing the number of animals condemned at slaughter?” she said.
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Every animal is inspected before and after slaughter by CFIA veterinarians, who look at the overall carcass with emphasis on heads, organs and lymph nodes for signs of disease.
If something is abnormal, it is set aside and assessed further to determine if it is suitable for human consumption.
Every rejected carcass receives a certificate as to why it was condemned and includes information like the producer’s name.
Monthly reports are sent to Agriculture Canada that are available on the public agriculture industry market information system.
Animals could be condemned for 40 different conditions but five issues stand out.
“Sometimes we do have carcasses that have multiple conditions,” Abel said.
Pneumonia is the primary reason for condemnation.
Diagnosis is based on visual assessment and the cause of illness is often linked to bovine respiratory disease.
The second reason is peritonitis, an infection of the lining of the stomach.
Edema is a generalized condition affecting the circulation system where there is an accumulation of fluid throughout the carcass.
Atrophy is associated with emaciated animals. There was no data on the age of animals but they know these show up more often during periods of drought.
Emaciation may show up as acid burning in stomach, a change in the fat where it has a yellow and/or jelly-like appearance. There is often no fat around the kidneys or organs.
Hepatitis is a general term where the liver looks diseased. The liver may be condemned but there could be other conditions apparent at the same time.
The Canadian national beef quality audit assessed livers and reported the economic loss from liver discounts was almost $21 per head for all cattle with a total industry loss of $61 million. This compares to an industry loss of $9.36 per head in 2011.
