Prevalences of welfare-related lesions at post-mortem meat-inspection in Danish sows.
We investigated the prevalences and intercorrelations of all daily meat-inspection recordings at four Danish sow abattoirs in the year 2000 from 23,794 sows coming from 207 sow or farrow-to-finisher herds. The meat-inspection data were obtained from databases at the Danish Bacon and Meat Council (DBMC). Prevalences generally were low--but large herd-to-herd variations were seen. Despite low prevalences, many slaughtered sows had recordings which raise welfare concerns. Intercorrelations between the meat-inspection recordings were evaluated using exploratory factor analysis describing underlying latent factors related to health and welfare problems within herds.
Cleveland-Nielsen
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A
Department of Animal Science and Animal Health, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Grønnegaardsvej 8, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. acln@fdir.dk
Christensen
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G
Ersbøll
A K
AK
D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005513:Food Inspection; D008460:Meat; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology