Injection-site lesions in carcasses of cattle receiving injections at branding and at weaning.

Crossbred steer and heifer calves (n = 84) were given injections at branding and at weaning (using a completely randomized block design); 225 to 376 d later, pairs of two subprimal cuts from each animal were evaluated for incidence and severity of injection-site lesions. The four products compared were 1) a 2-mL clostridial, 2) a 5-mL clostridial, 3) vitamin AD3, and 4) a long-acting oxytetracycline antibiotic (OTC). Branding-age calves (mean 48.3 d of age) received intramuscular injections of two of the four products, in the semimembranosus (inside round) muscles (one in the left muscle and one in the right); at weaning age (mean 199.3 d of age), calves received injections of the remaining two products in the gluteus medius (top sirloin butt) muscles (one in the left and the other in the right). Injections at branding of 2 mL of clostridial, 5 mL of clostridial, vitamin AD3, and OTC caused injection-site lesions in 72.5, 92.7, 5.3, and 51.2%, respectively, of inside rounds from slaughter cattle. Incidence of injection-site lesions was lowest (P < .05) among inside rounds and top sirloin butts from animals given vitamin AD3 (as calves, and at both branding and weaning times) and was highest (P < .05) in inside rounds from cattle given, as calves, injections of 5 mL of clostridial at branding or of OTC at weaning. Less trimming was required to remove the lesions resulting from injections of all four products when they were given at weaning time. Before completion of the present study, it was thought that injection-site lesions were from damage that subsisted only briefly following an inoculation; these results make it abundantly clear that intramuscular administration of clostridials and certain antibiotics will cause damage so severe that it will be evident in beef muscle 7.5 to 12 mo later.