Tumors found in cattle from slaughterhouses

Abstract:

In a survey for lesions in cattle in abattoirs from January 2011 to July 2014, 544 lesions were found, of which 65 were neoplasms. Forty two percent of those were of mesenchymal origin; 37% were epithelial; 14,5% were neural crest derivatives; 5% were sex chord derived tumors and 1.5 was from the peripheral nervous system. The most common tumor found was lymphoma (28% of all tumors), most of them as part of the enzootic leukosis complex. Squamous cell carcinoma was the second most frequent tumor (15% of all tumors). Consideration is made on the frequency of these tumors and the importance of the differential diagnosis at gross examination at the slaughterhouse among them and other important lesions, including tuberculous granulomatous lesions. There was a significance occurrence (13% of all tumors) of the adrenal tumor, pheocromocytoma. Papillomatosis represented only 3% of all tumors; as those are common benign tumors in cattle; their low numbers in this review could be explained by the fact that these are not tumors usually detected in the postmortem examination (after the hide was stripped from the carcass) which was mostly the case of this study, but rather by antemortem inspection. Less common tumors found (each accounting for 1.5 to 3% of all tumors) included granulosa cell tumor, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, hemangiosarcoma, hepatic tumors, interdigital fibroma, lipoma, liposarcoma, mammary adenocarcinoma, melanocytic tumors, mesothelioma, mixed apocrine adenocarcinoma of the tail, neurofibroma, renal cell carcinoma, primary pulmonary tumors, uterine adenocarcinoma, and uterine leiomyoma. It is intended that the results of this survey would be helpful in the identification of lesions at in the official meat inspection at the slaughterhouses.

Index Terms:
Diseases of cattle; neoplasia; slaughterhouse survey