| 1. |
- Vågsholm, Ivar
(författare)
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Challenges and opportunities in the implementation of new meat inspection systems in Europe
- 2021
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Ingår i: Trends in Food Science and Technology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0924-2244. ; 116, s. 460-467
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The traditional meat inspection system is often found to be inefficient. Meat inspection in European countries is in a phase of modernisation to reflect improvements in livestock health and advances in understanding meat safety. The key point of progress is to replace the traditional meat inspection with risk-based meat inspection, including the elements of a meat safety assurance system (MSAS). Scope and approach: Modernisation of meat inspection was launched by the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) opinions and recommendations in the period 2011-2013 and consequent amendments to the EU meat inspection legislation in the period 2014-2019. For this study, the EU-funded RIBMINS COST Action conducted a comprehensive survey using an in-depth questionnaire to estimate the level of implementation of new risk-based meat inspection systems in Europe, stakeholders' confidence in the new systems and the main identified obstacles. Key findings and conclusions: The implementation of new meat inspection systems is still ongoing, as they have been fully implemented in just 61%, 42% and 38% of the surveyed countries in the pig, bovine, and poultry sectors, respectively. The main identified obstacles are existing trade agreements with 3rd countries, costs of implementation, inadequate food chain information and resistance from meat inspectors. Improvement of all components of the current meat inspection systems is a prerequisite for further modernisation.
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| 2. |
- Berg, Lotta, et al.
(författare)
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Scientific Opinion on the assessment of studies on the use of carbon dioxide for stunning rabbits
- 2015
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Ingår i: EFSA Journal. - : Wiley. - 1831-4732. ; 13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW Panel) was asked by the European Commission to deliver a scientific opinion on two studies concerned with the use of carbon dioxide for stunning rabbits. The European Commission had received from the Spanish authorities a report of a study entitled ‘Carbon dioxide stunning of rabbits' and another study entitled ‘Stunning of rabbits with carbon dioxide', provided as a complement to the first study. The latter was undertaken in a commercial abattoir where a commercial carbon dioxide stunner was installed. The results of electrocardiography and animal-based measures (nasal discomfort and vocalisation) produced in the experimental slaughterhouse study clearly indicated that the rabbits were subjected to pain and suffering prior to the loss of consciousness. The data presented do not describe stable, controlled or repeatable experimental conditions. The statistical tests used to analyse the data were not appropriate. The study in the commercial abattoir was not based on sound scientific conclusions resulting from the experimental slaughterhouse study. For all of these reasons, the submitted studies did not meet the minimum criteria for eligibility in the EFSA guidance on the assessment criteria for studies evaluating the effectiveness of stunning interventions. Therefore, they were not further assessed.
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| 3. |
- Berg, Lotta, et al.
(författare)
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Scientific Opinion on the scientific assessment of studies on electrical parameters for stunning of small ruminants (ovine and caprine species)
- 2015
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Ingår i: EFSA Journal. - : Wiley. - 1831-4732. ; 13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW Panel) was asked by the European Commission to deliver a scientific opinion on three studies evaluating electrical parameters for the stunning of lambs and kid goats. The Commission received the studies from the Spanish authorities. One study was in the form of a manuscript entitled ‘Electrical stunning effectiveness with current levels lower than 1 A in lambs and kid goats'. The second study consisted of a summary in English entitled ‘Effect of the electrical stunning with inferior intensities of current to 1 Ampere on the carcass quality in Pascuales lambs', and the third study consisted of a summary in English entitled ‘Effect of electrical stunning with inferior intensities to 1 Ampere on the induction to the unconsciousness in lambs'. Reported outcomes for different animal categories were inconsistent and contradictory, indicating a need to validate if the stunning equipment delivered the intended current levels to the animals. The head-only stunning and slaughter intervention failed to achieve and/or maintain unconsciousness during bleeding and the head-to-body stunning and slaughter intervention failed to achieve cardiac ventricular fibrillation in all of the animals, as evidenced by the presence of corneal reflex and rhythmic breathing. No evidence of absence of pain and suffering is presented in the studies. The submitted studies are not considered adequate for a full welfare assessment of the alternative stunning method because they do not fulfil the eligibility criteria and the reporting quality criteria defined in the EFSA guidance on the assessment criteria for studies evaluating the effectiveness of stunning interventions or the EFSA opinion on monitoring welfare at slaughter of small ruminants.
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| 4. |
- Vågsholm, Ivar
(författare)
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Public health issues relating to zoonoses in wildlife and farmed game
- 2014
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Ingår i: Trends in game meat hygiene: from forest to fork. - The Netherlands : Wageningen Academic Publishers. - 9789086862382 ; :1, s. 31-58
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wildlife veterinarians are crucial for the protection of public, environmental and animal health as well as for food safety. In addition, meat from farmed game and wildlife is a high quality protein source, produced with less environmental impact and will be a part of future food security. In a ‘One Health' context not only food safety, but also the early warning through the monitoring and surveillance of emerging biological or chemical hazards will be tasks for game veterinarians. The early warning enables proactive risk management as game animals are sentinels for emerging public, animal and environmental health threats. It is therefore imperative that all the information from monitoring and surveillance of wildlife and farmed game is analysed and put into a holistic and global context. It is important that the diagnostic capabilities, resources of necropsies, but also the information gathering and analysis are coordinated both locally and globally. Examples of hot spots and/or major drivers for emerging diseases are the domestication of species and anthropogenic changes of habitats. One important source of information on the presence of public, environmental and animal health risks both present and emerging, is the meat inspection of game animals (both farmed and wild) to assure the fitness for human consumption. In conclusion, the role of the wildlife veterinarian is and will remain to be vital in terms of one health/one medicine, as well as for assuring future food security. The principal change (and indeed a paradigm shift) is to go from the current one point meat inspection system based on individual animal inspection to an integrated food safety assurance system. To achieve this, the risk mitigation including meat inspection will have to be adaptive and risk based. Prevalence targets for game farms and on carcases before chilling could be helpful tools
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| 5. |
- Berg, Lotta, et al.
(författare)
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Scientific opinion on monitoring procedures at slaughterhouses for bovines
- 2013
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Ingår i: EFSA Journal. - : Wiley. - 1831-4732. ; 11(12)
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This scientific opinion proposes toolboxes of welfare indicators for developing monitoring procedures at slaughterhouses for bovines stunned with penetrative captive bolt or slaughtered without stunning. In particular, the opinion proposes welfare indicators together with their corresponding outcomes of consciousness, unconsciousness or death. In the case of slaughter with captive bolt stunning, the opinion proposes a toolbox of indicators and the outcomes to be used to assess consciousness in bovine animals at three key stages of monitoring: (a) after stunning and during shackling and hoisting; (b) during neck cutting or sticking; and (c) during bleeding. For slaughter of bovines without stunning, a set of indicators and outcomes are proposed in another toolbox to be used for (a) assessing unconsciousness, before releasing bovines from restraint; and (b) confirming death before carcass dressing begins. Various activities-including a systematic literature review, an online survey and stakeholders' and hearing experts' meetings-were conducted to gather information about the specificity, sensitivity and feasibility of the indicators that can be included in the toolboxes. The frequency of checking differs according to the role of each person responsible for ensuring animal welfare. Personnel performing stunning, shackling, hoisting and/or bleeding will have to check all the animals and confirm that they are not conscious following stunning or before release from the restraint. For the animal welfare officer, who has the overall responsibility for animal welfare, a mathematical model for the sampling protocols is proposed, giving some allowance to set the sample size of animals that he/she needs to check at a given throughput rate (total number of animals slaughtered in the slaughterhouse) and tolerance level (number of potential failures). Finally, different risk factors and scenarios are proposed to define a ‘normal' or a ‘reinforced' monitoring protocol, according to the needs of the slaughterhouse.
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| 6. |
- Höjgård, Sören, et al.
(författare)
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Willingness to pay for compulsory deworming of pets entering Sweden to prevent introduction of Echinoccoccus multilocularis
- 2012
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Ingår i: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 106:1, s. 9-23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To investigate if the Swedish entry rules for pets to prevent the introduction of Echinococcus multilocularis (EM) are proportional (i.e. that their costs do not exceed the value of their benefits), a dichotomous-choice contingent valuation study was conducted. The study was performed before the first case of EM was detected in Sweden in February 2011. About 5000, randomly selected, Swedish citizens were invited to participate and 2192 of them (44%) accepted to do so. Missing information on whether or not one would accept to pay for keeping the rules for 143 respondents resulted in 2049 observations (41%) available for the estimation of willingness to pay (WTP), and missing information on personal characteristics for another 274 respondents reduced the number of observations available for sensitivity analysis to 1775(36%). Annual expected WTP for keeping the rules ranged between (sic) 54.3 and (sic) 99.0 depending on assumptions about compensations demanded by respondents not willing to pay. The estimates are conservative since only answers from respondents that were absolutely certain they would pay the suggested bid were regarded as yes-responses. That WTP is positive implies that Swedish citizens perceived the benefits of the rules to be larger than their costs. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 7. |
- Vågsholm, Ivar
(författare)
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Case studies on food safety control of fresh poultry meat: effective control of Salmonella in Sweden
- 2016
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Ingår i: Achieving sustainable production of poultry meat: safety, quality and sustainability. - 9781786760678 ; :1
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The starting point was the huge Alvesta outbreak in 1953, which was unprecedented in Sweden, with more than 9000 cases reported. Approximately 4000 persons required hospital care and 90 persons died. The outbreak lasted from June to December 1953, affecting major regions of Sweden. Consequently, several measures were enacted. The Public Health Institute of Sweden created a department of epidemiology to investigate outbreaks; doctors were recommended when seeing patients with diarrhoea to take faecal samples for bacteriological investigations. In 1961, offi cial control of all Salmonella serovars of public health importance on the animal side commenced. Moreover, Salmonella infection in animals became a notifi able disease. One unique feature of the Swedish Salmonella control is the aim to deliver Salmonella - free food to consumers. Therefore, all broilers sent for slaughter should be without Salmonella . This was achieved by the following strategies: (1) preventing contamination of the breeding pyramid (grandparent and parent fl ocks including hatcheries); (2) preventing and eliminating Salmonella contamination in feed given to broiler fl ocks; (3) surveillance of the production chain at critical control points to detect Salmonella contamination; (4) biosecurity on the production site; and (5) whenever Salmonella is found, taking action to remove it from the food chain. The Salmonella control of poultry has been successful, with rare fi ndings of Salmonella in meat and almost no human cases linked to Swedish poultry meat. The baseline studies organized by EFSA (2007 and 2010) found Salmonella in 0% of the broiler fl ocks and 0.3% of the broiler carcasses.
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| 8. |
- Vågsholm, Ivar
(författare)
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Control, Monitoring and Surveillance of Animal Health and Animal Infectious Diseases at the Slaughterhouse
- 2014
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Ingår i: Meat Inspection and Control in the Slaughterhouse. - : Wiley. - 9781118525869 ; :1, s. 249-276
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Meat inspection, meat hygiene and official control tasks in the slaughterhouse have always been of major importance in the meat industry, and are intimately related with animal diseases and animal welfare. The history of meat inspection has largely been a success story. Huge steps have been taken over more than a century to prevent the transmission of pathogenic organisms and contagious diseases from animals to humans. Various factors influence the quality and safety of meat including public health hazards (zoonotic pathogens, chemical substances and veterinary drugs), animal health and welfare issues during transport and slaughter. Meat inspection is one of the most important programs in improving food safety, and its scope has enlarged considerably over the last decades. Globalization has affected the complexity of the modern meat chain and has provided possibilities for food fraud and unfair competition. During the last two decades many food fraud cases have been reported, which have caused concern among consumers and the industry. Subsequently meat inspection is faced with new challenges. Meat Inspection and Control in the Slaughterhouse is an up-to-date reference book that responds to these changes and reflects the continued importance of meat inspection for the food industry. The contributors to this book are all international experts in the areas of meat inspection and the official controls limited to slaughterhouses, providing a rare insight into the international meat trade. This book will be of importance to students, professionals and members of the research community worldwide who aim to improve standards of meat inspection procedures and food safety.
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