Prevalence, severity, and relationships of multiple gross pathologies measured in beef cattle at slaughter

Abstract

A wide array of management tools and interventions exist within the beef industry to improve animal welfare and productivity; however, the ability to monitor and assess the outcomes of those tools is lacking. Thus, a multifaceted system to observe life-cycle health and well-being of beef cattle was designed and implemented to provide producers with real-time data on cattle health and productivity. In beef cattle production systems, deficiencies in management most commonly manifest themselves as cattle with bovine respiratory disease (BRD) or nutritional disorders such as acidosis; therefore, lung, liver, and rumen gross pathology lesions present in beef cattle at slaughter were measured and their associations with performance determined.