Carcass Lesion Severity and Pre-Slaughter Conditions in Heavy Pigs: A Prospective Study at a Commercial Abattoir in Northern Italy

Abstract

Pre-slaughter conditions and their effects on carcass quality have been largely addressed for pigs of 90–100 kg live weight, while few studies consider the effects of pre-slaughter conditions on the quality of the carcasses obtained from heavy pigs intended for Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) production. A total of 1680 heavy pigs were transported in 72 batches from a farm to a commercial abattoir on 16 different days, avoiding mixing unfamiliar animals. Slaughterhouse conditions, animal behaviors, and human–animal interactions were annotated at unloading and during the race toward the stunning cage. Carcass lesions on the rear, middle, and shoulder parts of the carcasses were scored. The prevalence of carcasses with severe lesions was 6.92%, 11.87%, and 6.83%, for the rear, middle, and shoulder parts, respectively. Among the pre-slaughter events, waiting before unloading and improper handling practices at the abattoir were the major factors affecting carcass lesion severity. Lairage pen space allowance was also found to affect severe rear and shoulder lesions, and the batches that were transported in the trailer had an increased prevalence of severe shoulder lesions. Our results suggest waiting time before unloading should be shortened as much as possible, and educational programs to train operators for more careful management of animals in the abattoir are greatly required to avoid improper animal handling practices.

Ante-mortem and Post-mortem Inspection and Relationship between Findings in a North Albanian Pig Slaughterhouse

“…Descriptive statistics were first used to present the data as absolute and relative frequencies with the mean prevalence and 95% confidence intervals [ 14 ]. The associations between the number of PM conditions and observed AM lesions were investigated by Poisson regression, including the batch size as an offset variable [ 1 ].…”

What is Meat in Serbia?

“…Therefore, evaluating the stress in livestock through the appropriate indicators and eliminating factors that cause stress-induced responses . The important issue is how these situations influence products and their acceptability, as poor welfare led to some important defects such as the death of animals, body weight loss, carcass lesions and composition, and meat quality defects, i.e., pale, soft, exudative (PSE) and dark, firm, dry (DFD) meats (Čobanović et al, 2019;Čobanović et al, 2021;Čobanović et al, 2023;Karabasil et al, 2017;Urrea et al, 2021;Vicic et al, 2021;Zappaterra et al, 2022). According to (Čobanović et al, 2023), carcass lesions (severe, moderate or low) are connected with alterations in blood measurements in slaughtered pigs and compromised animal welfare, affected by both animal characteristics and pre-slaughter conditions.…”

“…Good communication between stakeholders (slaughterhouses, transporters, and farmers), providing feedback of information among others, e.g., results of carcass lesions in slaughtered pigs from abattoir to previous steps in the meat chain could contribute to identifying critical points and eliminating negative factors with improved animal welfare in each phase (Čobanović et al, 2021;Čobanović et al, 2023;Karabasil et al, 2017). The application of regular, educational and training programs (animal behaviour, good management practice, standard operating procedure) to train operators (on the farm, during transport, at slaughterhouse) for prudent management of livestock is of great importance for good practice and proper handling (Čobanović et al, 2023;Kjosevski et al, 2021;Zappaterra et al, 2022). Good practice should be embodied in appropriate standards and national regulations that are enforced in consistent science-based knowledge and information, cost-effective and applicable, competent and well-trained personnel for livestock husbandry and management, to apply high animal welfare and protection standards and to fulfill public expectations (de Witte, 2009;Sundermann et al, 2023).…”