Histopathological Examination of the Livers of Compulsorily Slaughtered Holstein Dairy Cattle

Year 2025, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 21 - 22

Kemal Aksoy , Korkut Bozkurt , Abdülkerim Deniz , Mert Metin , Muhammed Özer

https://doi.org/10.47115/bsagriculture.1621456

Abstract

In recent years, many dairy cows in Türkiye have been forcibly slaughtered before they have finished their lactation. Among the reasons for slaughter, liver diseases can play an important role. In the present study, liver tissue from 85 Holsteins (n=4 primiparous, n= 81 multiparous) aged 3-13 years that were delivered to slaughterhouses for forced slaughter was used. After the obtained tissues were fixed, they were examined for steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis and necrosis using histopathological methods. Lesions of varying degrees were found in 46% of the liver tissues analysed. Among the reported findings were three examples of hepatic steatosis — one mild, one moderate and one severe. There were a total of 35 cases (41.2%) of liver inflammation that were found to be significant (p<0.001), of which 23 were mild, 6 moderate and 6 severe. No fibrosis was detected in any of the samples, but only one sample showed mild necrosis. The official health report stated that rumen acidosis and dyspepsia led to slaughter in 35.3% of the animals, while 21.2% were sent to slaughter due to anoestrus/urerus diseaseas/infertility problems. Consequently, the forced slaughter of Holsteins before the end of the lactation period means a considerable loss for the national economy. In conclusion, histopathological findings indicated a significantly high liver inflammation and majority of forcibly slaughtered Holsteins had rumen acidosis/indigation and anoestrus/fertility problems.

Keywords

Fatty liver, Fibrosis, Forcibly slaughtered, Inflammation, Necrosis

Ethical Statement

The present study was approved by the Animal Experiments Local Ethics Committee of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University (MUDEM-HADYEK) with the ethical approval number of 23.09.2021, 33/21.

Supporting Institution

This Research was supported financially by TÜBİTAK (2209-A University Students Research Projects Support Program, Application number 1919B012101249).

Project Number

TUBİTAK2209-A project-Application number 1919B012101249

Thanks

We would like to thank the veterinarians and other employees of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality slaughterhouses.

References

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• Altun S, Sağlam YS. 2014. Pathological examinations of lesions seen in liver of the cows slaughtered in Erzurum province. Atatürk Üniv Vet Bil Derg, 9(1): 7-15.