| dc.description.abstract | Meat inspection including inspection of the pluck is one of the ways in which spread of diseases from animals to humans can be prevented. A number of pathological lesions can lead to liver condemnation as they make the liver not fit for human consumption. This in turn may lead to significant financial losses. A cross-sectional study was carried out in two slaughter slabs in Mityana district to determine the prevalence of Fasciola SPP and other pathological lesions that lead to bovine liver condemnation and to estimate the associated financial losses in cattle slaughtered at the selected slaughter slabs. A total of 230 cattle livers were examined at postmortem and the observed pathological conditions were recorded. The condemned liver was weighed and the financial loss estimated basing on the cost of the liver per kilogram. The prevalence of the different pathological conditions was 20.4% for Fasciola SPP, 4.3% calcification, 3.5% abscess, 2.6 cirrhosis, 1.7% hydatidosis and 0.4% necrosis. This indicated that Fascioliasis was the major cause of liver condemnation. There was no significant association between age group, sex and breed (p>0.05) with the prevalence of Fascioliasis. A total of 190kg of liver were condemned from 76 animals with an average of 2kg per animal and this was estimated to be 60,895,968 UGX (15,964.2USD) annually. Fascioliasis was the major cause of liver condemnation therefore the need to control liver fluke infestation by deworming of cattle. In addition, proper meat inspection should be emphasized at all slaughter slabs since parasites of significant public health important importance such as hyatid cysts were detected. | en_US |
