Herd Health

Recently someone complained about not getting their liver back for the processor. Turns out 1/3 of the beef liver may look like the one in this picture above.

This is from the folks at Backyard Butchery and a post from them on Facebook.

A few days ago I posted a video popping a gnarly liver abscess on a steer we processed.

I did not include much for context, mainly because I did not want to end up in a long drawn out grass-fed vs grain-fed debate. Also, because writing such a post requires a good amount of time, hence the now 4-day follow-up post.

So I will preface this post accordingly: as a business, we respect your decision to feed your animal however you choose. (As long as it’s getting fed, we do not care.) You’re the one eating it, after all!

However, what you saw in the previous video, and below, is 100% from an unbalanced diet of “hot feed” grains.

“Hot feeds” are easily digested, high-energy feeds, such as grains like wheat, corn, barley, & sorghum.

*It is important to note that alfalfa is also considered a “hot feed” & should be treated as such- seasonally, with bloat precautions. (I personally feed a lot of alfalfa hay, with zero concerns of liver abscesses.) Feeding alfalfa will increase heat due to those same high digestibility & energy content properties, but is otherwise considered non-problematic because it does not cause acidosis or gut issues the way that grains do.

In the first video I posted, the steer was heavy corn & sweet feed fed for an extended period of time.

In the video below, you see a different type of abscessed liver in a bull (from a feedlot) fed a ration of 50% corn & 50% alfalfa pellet. Both animals referenced with infected livers were young, under 3yrs of age. I can not tell you their breeding, as that information is unknown.

The USDA does NOT deem this meat inedible, only the liver itself. It can extend into the skirt steak & hanger steak areas, which, if affected, would also be thrown away, & the rest of the animal would be processed as normal.

In both cases, we showed our clients the liver, allowed them to contact their large animal vet, & make a decision for themselves. In both cases, vets were unconcerned for the safety of the meat & animals were processed accordingly.

Now, as someone who primarily processes meat for smaller producers & homesteaders, what came as a shock to me was just how commonplace infected livers are in other butcher shops, all over the country. So much so, that I posted the original video in a butcher group online asking the question “How often do you see liver abscesses in your area?”, & the responses I received back left me dumbfounded.

Comments from other whole animal butcher’s included, but not limited to:

-“Every day.”
-“Every Friday on kill day.”
-“When I was inspecting at a high speed facility it was very common to see in both fat cattle and cull cows.”
-“Usually in grain fed in volume and/or for an extended amount of time.”
-“I’ve seen it a lot on the slaughter floor in cattle on grain for 12 to 18 months. Offal condemned was very high.”
-“Get it heaps but never really that bad.”
-“Saw it 10+ times a day in abattoir, caused by grain feeding.”
-“Yes here and there unfortunately”
-“They call that too hot of feed meaning too much corn grain not enough roughage.”
*Pic in comments

This naturally led me to diving head first into a rabbit hole on the topic of liver abscesses & what little information I could find on what is ironically, a huge problem in the industry.

20-32% of beef processed has what we call in the industry, “avocado liver”. (Yes- it has a nickname among butchers.) What is SO disconcerting to me, personally, is how “normal” this is that nobody has even considered that maybe… it isn’t?

A further breakdown:

“According to Michigan State University Extension, liver abscesses are not a new issue, having been associated with cattle consuming primarily grain-based diets as early as the 1930s. But they remain a costly challenge.

Michigan State Extension Beef Specialist Jerad Jaborek noted that livers condemned at slaughter represent an annual loss to the U.S. beef industry of more than $60 million. And that does not take into account the approximately 5-15% ding to average daily gain, and 9.7% reduction in feed efficiency they also actuate.

Further costs are incurred at the harvest level, where carcass tissue around an infected site may need to be trimmed by hand, and a burst abscess can cause chain stoppage in a plant for an hour or more.
Liver abscesses are also on the rise. According to the National Beef Quality Audit 2018, the incidence of liver abscesses in finished animals had risen from 9.9% in 2010-11, to 19.3% in 2016-17. This piles more issues onto the plate of concerns about the issue, because feeding an antibiotic – most commonly tylosin phosphate – is currently the most effective strategy to control the problem.

But more liver abscesses means more prophylactic antibiotic use, at a time when regulatory bodies and consumer groups are calling on livestock producers to reduce their antibiotic use in food animals, not raise it.”

How they emerge on a scientific level:

“Liver abscesses are discrete circumscribed focal sites of bacterial infection within the liver parenchyma, generally due to bacterial translocation from the rumen through the portal circulation to the liver. The causative organism is almost always Fusobacterium necrophorum. Prevention of the causative rumenitis, by minimizing high grain rations, is generally effective as a herd health strategy. Treatment of individual animals is generally not pursued as clinical signs are usually absent; although affected animals do not gain weight as well as healthy cattle, liver abscesses are generally an incidental finding at slaughter.”

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/digestive-system/hepatic-disease-in-large-animals/liver-abscesses-in-cattle

For those of you seeking “evidence”:
Please scroll through the screenshots here directly from the USDA website, of a study done on the subject of liver abscesses and their cause, dated March 20, 2024.

“Most people associate liver abscesses in cattle with a high-energy diet. The theory is that when cattle are fed elevated grain levels, highly fermentable starch in the rumen is rapidly fermented by bacteria, causing a drop in rumen pH. This acidity causes damage to the rumen lining, allowing bacteria to travel into the blood, reaching the liver and other organs where they can cause infection. However, it is still unknown with accuracy the exact route that these bacteria take to cause infection or injury to the liver.

The study confirms that an acidotic diet, combined with bacterial inoculation in the rumen, can be used as a model to induce liver abscesses. However, further research is being conducted at USDA to determine the consistency of the model before it can be used to evaluate new interventions to prevent this complex infection.”