Biosecurity and Product Integrity Crocodile Skin Project Contact: Cathy Shilton Pathologist –Veterinary Project Status: Completed. Below left: Researcher examining in The research involved an examination of crocodile skins at the three crust stage of skin for defects main stages of processing: salted skins, when skins are “raw” graded at the farm, skins, which is the intermediate, “crust” Raw salted crocodile Below right: colourless unfinished leather stage of the tanning process and skin on a light table with grid for skins, which is the final, finished stage. Lesions were “dyed” identifying photo locations categorised and digital images were taken of about 40 lesions on the belly skin at each processing stage for each of 31 skins from three crocodile farms. A standardised set of grid images were taken of each skin at each stage so that lesions noted at a later stage of processing could be retrospectively compared with the same lesion location in the skin at the earlier stage. Conclusions Recommendations Research Outputs Project results were presented to Most lesions in the raw An externally funded project should be crocodile industry leaders at a meeting skin show up in the developed to determine the factors in June 2012. A copy of the results was finished product. that determine why lesions are provided to each attendee in an expressed. Lesions with keratin or electronic web-page style format on a contour alterations in An externally funded project should be compact disc. the raw skin are more developed to investigate the way in likely to show up in the which lucent lesions are differentiated. finished product. Viral and Endogenous Retroviral Detection and Characterisation in Farmed
Biosecurity and Product Integrity Crocodile Skin Project Contact: Cathy Shilton –Veterinary Pathologist Project Status: Completed. The research involved an examination of crocodile skins at the three main stages of processing: “raw” salted skins, when skins are graded at the farm, “crust” skins, which is the intermediate, colourless unfinished leather stage of the tanning process and “dyed” skins, which is the final, finished stage. Lesions were categorised and digital images were taken of about 40 lesions on the belly skin at each processing stage for each of 31 skins from three crocodile farms. A standardised set of grid images were taken of each skin at each stage so that lesions noted at a later stage of processing could be retrospectively compared with the same lesion location in the skin at the earlier stage. Below left: Researcher examining in crust stage of skin for defects Below right: Raw salted crocodile skin on a light table with grid for identifying photo locations Research Outputs Conclusions Recommendations Project results were presented to crocodile industry leaders at a meeting in June 2012. A copy of the results was provided to each attendee in an electronic web-page style format on a compact disc. Most lesions in the raw skin show up in the finished product. Lesions with keratin or contour alterations in the raw skin are more likely to show up in the finished product. An externally funded project should be developed to determine the factors that determine why lesions are expressed. An externally funded project should be developed to investigate the way in which lucent lesions are differentiated. Viral and Endogenous Retroviral Detection and Characterisation in Farmed
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