Histopathological Examination of the Livers of Compulsorily Slaughtered Holstein Dairy Cattle

Year 2025, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 165 - 171, 15.03.2025

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 compulsory slaughtered before they have finished their lactation due to liver diseases. This study aimed to examine pre-slaughter clinical examination and post-slaughter liver tissue damage in Holstein breed dairy cows subjected to compulsory slaughter. 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 compulsory slaughter was used. Clinical examination of all animals was performed before slaughter. 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 analyzed. 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 clinical examination stated that rumen acidosis and dyspepsia led to slaughter in 35.3% of the animals, while 21.2% were sent to slaughter due to anestrus/uterus disease/infertility problems. In conclusion, histopathological findings indicated a significantly high liver inflammation and the majority of compulsorily slaughtered Holsteins had rumen acidosis/indigestion and anestrus/fertility problems.

Keywords

Fatty liver, Fibrosis, Compulsorily slaughtered, Inflammation, Necrosis

Ethical Statement

The present study was approved by the Animal Experiments Local Ethics Committee of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University (approval date: Septeber 23, 2021, protpcele code: 33/21).

Supporting Institution

TÜBİTAK

Project Number

TUBİTAK2209-A project-Application number 1919B012101249

Thanks

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

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