0
Herd health slaughter checks regularly identify enzootic pneumonia-like (EP-like) lesions and pleuritis. The aim of this paper is to determine the associations between these lesions and post-trimming carcass weight. Data were collected on the presence/ absence and severity of EP-like lesions and presence/ absence of pleuritis from pigs at the abattoir.
Linear mixed models identified a significant association between an increase in EP-like lesion severity and a decrease in post-trimming carcass weight (P=0.006) at the individual level. Each categorical increase in EP-like lesion severity (5 points step) was associated with a 0.37 kg reduction in post-trimming carcass weight. The presence of EP-like lesions in individual pigs, irrespective of severity (P=0.034) and the presence of pleuritis (P=0.038) were significantly associated with a reduction in post-trimming carcass weight of 1.26 kg and 1.25 kg respectively.
The results confirm that the presence of these lesions at slaughter are associated with a significant decrease in production performance which can result in substantial economic implications for producers.
V.R.Brewster, H.C.Maiti, A.W.Tucker, A.Nevel. Associations between EP-like lesions and pleuritis and post trimming carcass weights of finishing pigs in England. Livestock Science. Volume 201, July 2017, Pages 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2017.04.012
