A study of the prevalence and economic significance of diseases and defects of slaughtered farmed deer.

A survey was undertaken in a deer slaughterhouse to record the diseases, defects, and productivity-related information that were detectable at postmortem meat inspection. A total of 4762 farmed deer were surveyed in 1988-89 over the period of highest throughput (October-January). Comparative data were drawn from a further two deer slaughterhouses and from national disease and defect statistics for slaughtered cattle. Farmed deer had a very different disease and defect status compared to cattle. Wounds and bruises dominated the disease and defect statistics, and resulted in an average loss of 26.9% in carcass value over all cases. In addition, most chronic pathological lesions were trauma-related. Tuberculosis was the only infectious disease of importance, and the prevalence of confirmed cases (0.38%) o was significantly higher than that in slaughtered cattle in New Zealand (0.07%). Average loss in carcass value for reactors and confirmed tuberculous cases was 74.7%.