[The effect of large burns in ruminants on the edibility of meat]

The effect of non-contact burns was studied on a model of a slaughter ruminant. The study included the examination of the penetration of germs into the blood stream and into the meat and of the main changes characterizing the ripening of the obtained meat. The tests were conducted with two groups of animals, killed 1) at the beginning of the development of the infection process in the burn, 2) in a health state in which the prognosis was unfavourable quo ad vitam. It was found on the basis of haemocultivation, microbiological examination of the samples of organs and meat, and examination of pH values in the meat that the natural body barriers were destructed and the biochemistry of the muscular tissue was impaired. The penetration of the germs through the natural barriers of the organism was recorded also before the initiation of the development of the infection in the burn. The acidification of the meat worsened post mortem. It is possible, on the basis of the facts which were revealed, to present the following recommendations for the practical use of the results in the veterinary inspection of meat in ruminants with large burns: to take samples for microbial examination, even though the animal has been slaughtered in the earliest stage of the disease; to determine the pH in the meat obtained from the slaughtered animals and to expect worse acidification and imperfect ripening of the meat.