The sharpness of the knife used for slaughter is of the utmost importance from an animal welfare perspective. The quantification of knife sharpness is almost impossible in abattoirs. The sharpness of the knife blade used to slaughter an animal, as well as its effects on animals’ pain and stress levels, is an important area of investigation that needs to be addressed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of knife sharpness on blood biochemical parameters, plasma catecholamines, and electroencephalographic (EEG) responses. Twenty Brahman crossbred steers were either subjected to slaughter with a sharp knife (n = 10) or a commercial sharp knife (n = 10); knife sharpness was measured with the ANAGO® sharpness tester. There was significant increase in adrenaline (p < 0.0001), glucose (p = 0.0167), creatinine kinase (p = 0.0123) and lactate dehydrogenase (p = 0.0151) at post-slaughter compared to pre-slaughter in commercial sharp knife group than in thesharp knife group. A significant increase was observed in the median frequency (p < 0.0001) and total power (p < 0.0001) of the EEG, the parameters for pain and stress, in the animals slaughtered with the commercial sharp knife than those slaughtered with the sharp knife. Thus, EEG results also supported the hormonal and biochemical results. From the results, it is concluded that animals slaughtered with a sharp knife experienced the least amount of pain and stress compared to those slaughtered with a commercial sharp knife.

A comprehensive stress assessment is vital in understanding the impact of the pre-slaughter procedure on animal welfare. The transportation and handling process was commonly reported to cause stress in animals. This research utilises electroencephalography (EEG) as an alternative stress indicator to non-painful acute stress measurement. EEG has been proved to be instantaneous and sensitive with specific results. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the stress level of goats subjected to two different transportation duration and the effect of lairage based on their EEG activities and blood parameters changes. Eighteen adult male goats were divided into two transportation stress groups based on the transport duration: the two-hour (TS2) and six-hour (TS6) groups. Then, each group was then again divided into three smaller groups according to the lairage duration, which was three-hour (L3), six-hour (L6), and overnight (L12) groups. Blood was sampled before transport, after transport, and during slaughter while EEG was recorded before transport, after transport, after lairage, and during slaughter. Results revealed that there was a significant decrease in beta wave activity compared to baseline in TS2 goats (P < 0.05) after transportation, whereas no significant difference was detected in the TS6 goats. At the same time, goats from the TS2 group showed increase in creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) compared to that in TS6 goats. Together with the observed cortisol concentration, these findings showed that the TS6 goats were fully adapted to the transportation stress while the TS2 goats were still under stress. As for the lairage duration, it was observed that the TS2L3 goats showed lower EEG activities than the values obtained after two-hour transportation, while lower EEG activities were found from the TS6L6 goats after six-hour transportation. Therefore, it can be concluded that three-hour lairage was adequate to lower the impact of two hours transportation stress, whereas six-hour lairage was required to reduce the impact of six hours transportation stress. Finally, it was also found that the TS6L3, TS6L6, and TS6L12 groups took a long time to die after slaughter than the TS2L3, TS2L6, and TS2L12 goats based on the time their EEG activity reached isoelectric.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of shackling and halal slaughter with head-only electrical stunning (ES) using water bath or no stunning (NS) on plasma levels of adrenaline (AD), noradrenaline (NAD) and corticosterone (CORT) levels of broiler chickens. Male and female broiler chickens (Cobb 500) 38 days old from a commercial farm in Johore, Malaysia, were placed in plastic crates (0.80 × 0.60 × 0.31 m) at 10 birds per crate, and transported for 2.5 hours in an open truck. The ambient temperature during transportation was 25 to 27 °C. Upon arrival at a commercial processing plant, a total of 50 male broiler chickens (2.2-2.5 kg) were randomly selected from the flocks that were delivered, transferred to different five crates (10 birds per crate) and held in a lairage for 2 to 3 h. Blood samples were collected at various points, namely after lairaging (P1) (first sampling point for both ES and NS chickens, regarded as basal values), shackling (P2) (second sampling point for both ES and NS chickens), stunning (P3) (third sampling point for ES chickens), and ventral neck incision in stunned (P4) (fourth sampling point for ES chickens) and no stun (P5) (third sampling point for NS chickens). Ten birds were sampled at each sampling point (50 birds in total). Both stunned and no stun birds were shackled. Results show that shackling (P2) did not significantly affect the AD, NAD and CORT levels. However, electrical stunning elevated both the AD and CORT levels significantly, but not NAD. Neck cut had negligible effect on the AD and NAD in NS and ES broilers, but significantly increased CORT compared with the basal CORT value. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that head-only electrical stunning using a water bath might elevate AD and CORT. The study concluded that, as measured by AD and NAD, slaughter with or without stunning may not induce a physiological stress response in broilers.

No abstract

With the increase in the global buffalo herd, the use of supplementation in the ruminant feeding has become an important area for many researchers who are looking for an isocaloric and isonitrogenous diet to improve production parameters. In order to improve the performance of the Asian water buffalo, the optimal balance of all nutrients, including energy and protein, are important as macronutrients. Dietary supplementation is one of the alternatives to enhance the essential nutrient content in the buffalo diet and to improve the rumen metabolism of the animal. Researchers have found that supplementation of concentrate and rumen bypass fat could change growth performance and carcass traits without causing any adverse effects on the buffalo growth. Some studies showed that dry matter intake, body condition score and some blood parameters and hormones related to growth responded positively to concentrate and rumen bypass fat supplementation. In addition, changes of feeding management by adding the supplement to the ruminant basal diet helped to increase the profit of the local farmers due to the increased performance and productivity of the animals. Nevertheless, the effects of dietary supplementation on the performance of ruminants are inconsistent. Thus, its long-term effects on the health and productivity of buffaloes still need to be further investigated.