Control and monitoring of animal health and reduction of the risk of animal diseases transmission using slaughterhouses land territory in Iran

Slaughterhouses are one of the most important sites for animal health monitoring and disease surveillances and implementation of control strategies. Valuable information about animal disease status can be achieved through routine meat inspection measures in slaughterhouses. urveillance and monitoring of various animal diseases and zoonoses such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), tuberculosis, brucellosis, parasitic infections) like fascioliasis, cysticercosis, trichinosis(or and high risk diseases such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) (because of easy detection of downer cow syndrome) are easily possible through ante- and postmortem meat inspection in slaughterhouses. In 2016, a cross sectional study was conducted with the objective of land territorial planning for slaughterhouses in our country. The study was done by collecting available information from Iran Veterinary Organization Council and municipalities using questionnaire. According to our results, totally, there are 396 slaughterhouses including 336 traditional and 60 industrial slaughterhouses in our country. Also for achieving the desirable health situation, we need to build at least 3, 26, 56 and 31 industrial modern slaughterhouses on the basis of the four patterns suggested by Iran Veterinary Organization, respectively. In conclusion, when we plan for implementation of prevention and control strategies for animal diseases, land territory for building slaughterhouses is really an appropriate tool for reducing live animal transport and replacement of meat trade with live animal trade.