Evaluation of losses in carcasses of cattle naturally infected with Fasciola hepatica: effects on weight by age range and on carcass quality parameters

摘要

Although fasciolosis is a relatively common disease, the productive and economic losses resulting from cattle with chronic fasciolosis are unclear. This paper aims to investigate the effect of fasciolosis on the parameters of carcass quality and discuss the hypothesis that the effects on weight differ among age ranges of cattle. For this, we analysed abattoir data of 30,151 bovines, from 928 farms, slaughtered in Uruguay in 2016, of which 33.9% (95% confidence interval (CI): 27.3–41.1%) had Fasciola hepatica (liver fluke). A mixed model was built to assess whether the effect of fasciolosis on weight differs depending on the age range, using the interaction term ‘age*F. hepatica’. The effect on the carcass parameters was tested using a proportional logistic regression. The interaction of age and F. hepatica was statistically significant (P?