What mesenteric lesion is that in a sheep?

Hi ! Please can you help me by telling which mesenteric lesion is this in a sheep? There are multiple lesions in the mesentery with different sizes (about 2 to 7 cm of long and about 2cm in diameter) of black color. On the cheek there was a lesion of about 2 cm(maybe an abscess I'm not sure about it cause it was covered by the skin) and another similar to this on the upper thigh. Could you please tell me which infection is this and whether or not it's contagious to humans, and what about the meat is it good for consumption? The sheep seemed  to be in good health and had a good appetite. Thank you for responding me.

Wow!  I wonder where in the world you are and what circumstances this picture was taken?  This is a UK site;  in the UK, animals should only be slaughtered for eating in an approved slaughterhouse, where the meat inspector would make this judgement for you.  Some animals in the UK may be slaughtered using appropriate methods on the farm for the family's own consumption.  In this case, the food standards agency require appropriate notice of home slaughter to be given (see GOV.UK website) and should be contacted for advice. I cannot tell you what is causing the lesions but they could be lymphatic growths, tumours or infection and they could also be infectious to people.  The way to identify them would be to have a meat inspector and vet check (and potentially send samples to an histology or microbiology lab). I will leave this open in case any of my large animal colleagues have a better guess as to the cause, but would not advise eating meat from this or any animal without the appropriate veterinary checks.

Thank you for your response, In fact this animal was slaughtered for the family's own consumption and using appropriate methods, even a vet examined it before the slaughtering, and he even saw the small lump on the cheek (about 2 cm of diameter under the skin) and told us that it was ok, and that the animal was in good health and appropriate for consumption. But unfortunately after the slaughtering was done we discovered those black lesions on the mesentery which made us worry.

I am not a large animal vet but it would be a good idea to call your vet back and show them the picture ASAP if you can.  Please do let us know what they say!

I am not a large animal vet but it would be a good idea to call your vet back and show them the picture ASAP if you can.  Please do let us know what they say!

Thank you Liz Buchanan for your response and sorry for the delay. We consulted another vet who reassured us and told us that the meat can be consumed, but of course it has to be well cooked. Anyway you should always be careful when manipulating fresh meat (by wearing gloves and washing  your hands afterwards and by avoiding eating rare or medium cooked meat) even if it has been checked and no problem detected.