Veterinary Sanitary Appraisal

(1) A scientific discipline that elaborates methods of research and veterinary sanitary evaluation of animal products.

(2) A function of veterinary service to determine the fitness of food products, using these methods. The term “veterinary sanitary appraisal” was introduced in the USSR in the 1920’s. Its principal practical value is in the prevention of diseases transmitted to humans through food and industrial products of animal origin.

Veterinary sanitary appraisal as a scientific discipline is closely related to the allied sciences of microbiology, parasitology, epizootiology, pathological anatomy, and histology; many problems of veterinary sanitary appraisal are worked out by these sciences. Although veterinary sanitary appraisal was formed as a separate branch of knowledge only in the 20th century, study of the methods of investigation and inspection of animal products was carried out considerably earlier. In the 19th and beginning of the 20th century knowledge of veterinary sanitary appraisal was an integral part of meat science and food hygiene. The latest achievements of veterinary sanitary appraisal include post-slaughter diagnoss and sanitary evaluation of meat with parasitic diseases, leukoses, or a chronic (localized) form of anthrax in swine; rapid diagnosis of toxic infection of food; and chemical methods of determining meat from diseased animals.

Veterinary sanitary appraisal is taught in veterinary institutes and in university departments as an independent discipline; the fundamentals of veterinary sanitary appraisal are included in the course on food hygiene at medical institutes. Scientific research work on veterinary sanitary appraisal is conducted in appropriate subdepartments in institutions of higher education and in special laboratories of scientific research institutes.

As a function of veterinary service, veterinary sanitary appraisal consists of preslaughter and postslaughter diagnosis of animal diseases and investigation of meat, milk, fish, eggs, and their products. Veterinary sanitary appraisal is regulated by special rules that set down the principles by which quality checks are conducted on animal products to determine if they are dangerous to human health.

According to the veterinary laws of the USSR, all products of animal origin are subject to veterinary sanitary appraisal. For this purpose veterinary sanitary control has been organized to inspect all enterprises of the meat and milk industries, refrigerators, food depots, and markets. Marketing of animal products without veterinary sanitary appraisal is prohibited.