Reasons for cattle retirement on feeding farms

¹ All-Russian Veterinary Research Institute of Pathology, Pharmacology, and Therapy, 394087 Voronezh, Russia
² Saratov State Agrarian University named after N.I. Vavilov, 410012 Saratov, Russia
³ All-Russian Research Institute of Veterinary Sanitation, Hygiene and Ecology branch of Federal Scientific Centre All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine of the Russian Academy of Research, Moscow, Russia
⁴ Saint-Petersburg State Academy of Veterinary Medicine, 196084 St. Petersburg, Russia

^* Corresponding author: maxim.zhukoff2015@yandex.ru

Abstract

The study has been carried out at two livestock complexes specializing in the production of beef to investigate the causes of non-productive retirement of animals. The structure of the causes of death or necessary slaughter of young cattle was determined by the results of pathological autopsy (n = 2816). Moreover, it was revealed that in 83.5 % of the animals, morphological changes in the respiratory organs prevailed, which in 40.2 % of the cases were thanatogenetically significant. The pathology of the digestive system was found in 29.6 % of animals, and in 14.9 % of cases they caused death. Pathology of the kidneys and urinary tract most often occurred at the age of 4–6 months and caused the retirement of 7.6–9.4 % of the animals. The role of cardiovascular pathology in the structure of the causes of retirement increases in young animals aged 8–11 months, while that of diseases of the joints and distal extremities rises at the final stage of their fattening. Clinical and expert evaluation of the activity of veterinary specialists (n = 12) showed that they correctly identified the underlying disease in 74 %, concomitant pathologies in 17.9 %, and complications in 5 % of diseased. Therefore, one of the problems of diagnosing diseases in young cattle during the period of growing and fattening is an incomplete diagnosis due to the low detection rate of concomitant pathologies and complications, some of which are of decisive thanatogenetic significance.