These procedures are considered extensive carcass palpation because no other livestock species receives palpation of this magnitude. In contrast, selective carcass palpation will mean that inspectors palpate lamb carcasses only when they have reason to believe that disease conditions or pathology may be present. Selective carcass palpation will apply only to carcasses and not to viscera. Selective carcass palpation will not change other inspection procedures for lambs such as turning the carcass, which is necessary to perform inspection procedures. In determining whether to change inspection procedures for lamb carcasses, FSIS first considered the benefits derived from extensive carcass palpation and determined what food safety or other consumer protection benefits, if any, are attributable to the current inspection procedure.
Caseous lymphadenitis is the primary disease of lambs detected by extensive carcass palpation.
In the United States, six federally inspected plants slaughter 80 percent of the lambs. Caseous lymphadenitis is rare in lambs, and it does not cause foodborne illness in people who eat lamb, regardless of how thoroughly or not it is cooked, or in people who handle lamb. None of these seven, however, requires carcass palpation for diagnosis. FSIS then considered whether the current inspection techniques used on lambs that employ extensive carcass palpation cause inspectors to spread or add contamination to lamb carcasses. The primary reason for extensive carcass palpation in lambs is to detect lesions of caseous lymphadenitis.