| dc.description.abstract | Budadiri Town Council has one slaughter slab that supplies meat to communities with in and around it. However, during the routine meat inspection of cattle at slaughter by the veterinary public health staff, there are many cases of cattle livers not found fit for human consumption and this has raised the concern of the veterinary public health staff at this slaughter slab and the prospective meat consumers from this slaughter place. The study therefore intended to determine the major pathological conditions of the liver of cattle that lead to either partial or total condemnation at Budadiri Town Council Slaughter slab. The study was carried out for three weeks between 9th July to 30th July 2022. Gross examination of all the livers of cattle that were slaughtered during this period was done by visual examination, palpation and incision and any lesions observed were recorded. After gross examination, condemned liver samples were collected in containers containing 10% buffered formalin and with an identification number and submitted to the Department of Veterinary Pharmacy, Clinical and Comparative Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity Makerere University for Histopathology. Out of the 66 animals that were slaughtered, 34 (51.5%) animals had their livers apparently normal with no grossly observable lesions thus wholly passed for human consumption while 32 (48.5%) were found to have infected livers which were partially or totally condemned. Grossly, from these 32 affected livers, 32 (100%) had fascioliasis and 4 (12.5%) had fibrosis. At microscopic examination, 3 (11.1%) had fascioliasis, 13 (48.1%) had liver fibrosis and 18 (66.7%) had liver necrosis. This high rate of liver necrosis and fibrosis at microscopic examination could be associated with fascioliasis since all the condemned livers had fascioliasis at gross examination. The study therefore, revealed that fascioliasis is the leading cause of liver condemnation followed by necrosis and then fibrosis. Since fascioliasis can be prevented by either chemotherapy or by control of the intermediate host (Lyminaea Truncatula), it is of importance that the parasite is controlled at the farms where these animals are sourced from. | en_US |
