Meat packers are dealing with liver abscesses, a growing trend that costs them time and money. It is a problem seen mostly in beef in dairy cattle.
They do not cause much of an issue for dairy producers but they are a big problem for packers. Workers have to manually remove the liver of carcasses with abscesses, and then surrounding areas have to be examined for potential spread. It is becoming a big problem because they are showing up in more than half the animals being processed.
According to Michigan State Extension, livers condemned at slaughter contribute to an annual loss of more than $60 million industry-wide.
