Abstract

A gross pathological examination of pulmonary lesions on 399 cattle slaughtered at Gondar ELFORA abattoir was conducted on in the period November, 2011 to March, 2012 with the objectives of estimating the frequency of various pulmonary lesions and the associated risk factors and gross lesions were screened and the most encountered lesions were emphysema, pale and dark red to dark gray color of the lung, hepatization, pleurisy, congested lung and abscess at different parts of the lung. The frequency of gross lesions identified were pneumonia (5.5%), hydatidosis (5.0%), emphysema (4.0%), calcified lung (1.5%), abscess (1.5%), congested lung (2.5%), pleurisy (1.3%) and hemorrhagic lung (1.5%) with an overall prevalence of 91(22.8%). The prevalence of gross lesions in adult and old animals was 17.8 and 26.3% respectively. A prevalence of 25.2, 22.4 and 20.4% were seen in poor, moderate and good body conditioned animals respectively. The prevalence of gross lesions in local breed was 23.4 and 20.0% in cross breeds. Therefore, in the current study, a significant number of gross pathological lesions were identified in cattle slaughtered in the abattoir and many organs were condemned as a result of the organ damage and a risk for public health.

Key words: Gross lesions, prevalence, cattle, abattoir.