Added Value of Meat Inspection Data for Monitoring of Dairy Cattle Health in the Netherlands

Abstract

Meat inspection records of one large cattle slaughterhouse were analyzed to evaluate the added value of slaughterhouse data for cattle health surveillance in the Netherlands. Data were available from January 2015 to September 2018, consisting of 467,361 meat inspection records. Analyses included (1) an assessment of the representativeness of the cattle herds in the slaughterhouse data in relation to the cattle herd population in the Netherlands, and (2) multivariable analyses to quantify associations between meat inspection findings and farm of origin characteristics, and the trends in time of the findings in slaughtered cattle. Ninety percent of the meat inspection records originated from dairy cattle therefore this paper only presents the results of dairy herds (N = 422,194 cattle). The dairy herds in the slaughterhouse data seemed representative for the Dutch dairy population although their regional coverage differed from the distribution of dairy herds in the Netherlands. Non-dairy herds were underrepresented in the slaughterhouse data which stresses the importance of the inclusion of data from other slaughterhouses that may be more specialized in slaughtering beef cattle. Inspection records were categorized into 15 indicators related to ante-mortem and post-mortem findings. Following multivariable analyses, seven indicators were deemed of added value to existing cattle health surveillance components, as they provided either new information or information regarding specific health problems.