Main causes of condemnation of cattle carcass and viscera in a refrigerated slaughterhouse in the Tocantina region of Maranhão, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this study was to report the main causes of viscera and carcass condemnation in cattle slaughtered in a municipal slaughterhouse under state inspection (SIE), in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. In this way, for the realization of this study, all conviction data in the years 2021 and 2022 were tabulated, using daily records of condemnation of carcasses and viscera from the Frigorific slaughterhouse. During the period evaluated, the slaughter of 3,432 cattle, with 2,245 animals slaughtered in 2021 and 1,185 animals slaughtered in 2022, of which n=413 (100%) convictions were recorded, of which n=410 (99.3%) were condemnation of viscera and n=3 (0.7%) of total condemnation of bovine carcasses. In viscera convictions, the most affected organ was the kidney, with 161 cases, corresponding to 37.5%. followed by lung n=116 (27.1%), liver n=93 (22%), spleen n=31 (7.7%), intestine n =5 (1.50%) and heart n=4 (1%). On the other hand, in the carcass convictions, tuberculosis prevailed with 66.7% (n=2), followed by brucellosis with 33.3% (n=1) of the causes of total conviction. Injuries with the highest intensity of viscera condemnations were: Urinary cyst n=67 (43.42%), Telangiectasia n=56 (59.55%), Pulmonary emphysema n=40 (36.36%), Renal ischemia n=43 (25.65%), and pulmonary congestion n=32 (31.81%). It is concluded that during the 48 months of studies, the health of the animals slaughtered in the municipal slaughterhouse of Açailândia was in favorable conditions for meat production for the consumer market, since the number of carcasses condemned by zoonosis presented low proportions of occurrence.