Applying Bipartite Network Analysis and Ordination Technique to Evaluate Long-Term Data from Veterinary–Sanitary Examination of Slaughtered Pigs

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Veterinary inspections in abattoirs are important in the surveillance of zoonotic diseases. This study is based on veterinary inspection reports providing data about the diseases and welfare issues of 231 million pigs slaughtered in 16 regions of Poland between 2009 and 2019. Over 80 million slaughtered pigs were found with pathological changes that could pose a risk to human health. The most frequently observed changes were abscesses, soiling, faecal or other contaminations, and congestions, together accounting for 77.6% of the total infections. Statistical approaches conducted with the use of long-term data can help identify the most problematic health and welfare issues in slaughterhouses. The results of this study showed that changes related to poor animal welfare (purulent foci, contamination, congestion) and parasitic diseases accounted for the majority of the identified cases of condemnation. ABSTRACT: Animal and meat inspections in abattoirs are important in the surveillance of zoonotic diseases. Veterinary inspections in abattoirs can provide useful data for the management of health and welfare issues of humans and animals. Using the network analysis and ordination technique, in this study, we analyzed the data from 11 years of veterinary inspections in pig slaughterhouses from 16 regions in Poland. Based on the huge data set of 80,187,639 cases of diseases and welfare issues of pigs, the most frequent livestock diseases were identified to be abscesses, soiling, faecal or other contaminations, and congestions, which together accounted for 77.6% of the total condemnations. Spatial and temporal differences in swine diseases between the Polish regions were recognized using the above-mentioned statistical approaches. Moreover, with the use of a quite novel method, not used yet in preventive veterinary medicine, called a heatmap, the most problematic disease and welfare issues in each region in Poland were identified. The use of statistical approaches such as network analysis and ordination technique allow for identification of the health and welfare issues in slaughterhouses when dealing with long-term inspection data based on a very large number of cases, and then have to be adopted in current veterinary medicine.