Implication off clinical pathology in assessment of animal health and in animal production and meat inspection

Clinical, zootechnical and industrial developments of the last decades have led to new ideas on monitoring systems for animal production and meat Quality assessment systems, integrated risk assessment concerning consumer's health and monitoring for infectious animal diseases, are more relevant today than pathomorphological control of individual subjects. Published papers on investigations to assess slaughtered animals by blood variables of classical clinical pathology and by measuring acute phase reactants, are mentioned. Most papers deal with ruminants giving good perspectives for the acute phase proteins in that species. Only limited literature is available regarding acute phase proteins in swine; zinc and iron have been shown to be of little value for general health monitoring in swine. Preliminary studies on limited numbers of finishing pigs showed good prospects for the development of species specific assays for acute phase proteins for future practical use in the slaughterhouse, Isolation procedures for porcine haptoglobin (HP), serum amyloid A (SAA) and C reactive protein (CRP) are described. It is suggested that for monitoring individual animals, the signal of acute phase variable can be amplified considerably by applying an acute phase index (API) combining positive x negative reactants(-1). Calculations on the original data from a former investigation on 233 non-healthy and 21 control cattle gave excellent results for an API. Similar studies are in progress for swine.