Determining frequency of common pulmonary gross and histopathological findings in feedyard fatalities

Abstract

Pulmonary disease is often associated with morbidity and mortality in feedlot cattle. The most common syndromes in­clude bronchopneumonia, acute interstitial pneumonia, and bronchopneumonia with an interstitial pneumonia. Systemic necropsy is a useful diagnostic tool to collect information to enhance decision making about the health and management of feedlot cohorts. The study objective was to utilize gross nec­ropsy and histopathology to determine the frequency of pul­monary lesions associated with 3 major syndromes and the agreement between gross and histopathological diagnoses. Furthermore, we assessed the consistency of classifying his­topathologic lesions from 4 different lung lobe samples taken from an individual case.