Good animal welfare makes economic sense: potential of pig abattoir meat inspection as a welfare surveillance tool

Abstract

During abattoir meat inspection pig carcasses are partially or fully condemned upon detection of disease that poses a risk to public health or welfare conditions that cause animal suffering e.g. fractures. This incurs direct financial losses to producers and processors. Other health and welfare-related conditions may not result in condemnation but can necessitate ‘trimming’ of the carcass e.g. bruising, and result in financial losses to the processor. Since animal health is a component of animal welfare these represent a clear link between suboptimal pig welfare and financial losses to the pig industry.Meat inspection data can be used to inform herd health programmes, thereby reducing the risk of injury and disease and improving production efficiency. Furthermore, meat inspection has the potential to contribute to surveillance of animal welfare. Such data could contribute to reduced losses to producers and processors through lower rates of carcass condemnations, trimming and downgrading in conjunction with higher pig welfare standards on farm. Currently meat inspection data are under-utilised in the EU, even as a means of informing herd health programmes. This includes the island of Ireland but particularly the Republic.This review describes the current situation with regard to meat inspection regulation, method, data capture and utilisation across the EU, with special reference to the island of Ireland. It also describes the financial losses arising from poor animal welfare (and health) on farms. This review seeks to contribute to efforts to evaluate the role of meat inspection as a surveillance tool for animal welfare on-farm, using pigs as a case example.

Effects of scalding and dehairing of pig carcasses at abattoirs on the visibility of welfare-related lesions

“…Tail lesion prevalence in the current study was approximately half the prevalence reported in previous studies examining tail lesions in pig herds on the island of Ireland (Harley et al, 2012a;Harley et al, 2014). It is possible that this reflects a decrease in the prevalence of tail lesions in pig herds on the island of Ireland.…”

“…Tail lesions, particularly more serious lesions, are related to secondary conditions such as abscessation and pleuritic lesions of the lungs (Huey, 1996;Marques et al, 2012), and are associated to a greater extent with trimming of the carcass than milder lesions (Kritas and Morrison, 2007). Nonetheless, even mild tail lesions are associated with carcass condemnations and reduced carcass weights (Harley et al, 2012a and. Therefore, scoring of tail lesions after, rather than before, scalding and dehairing of carcasses offers clear advantages if the information is to be used to inform herd health and welfare management plans.…”

“…Based on this information, the required number of farms was 70. Previous research showed that the average batch size of pigs submitted to abattoirs on the island of Ireland was 142 (Harley et al, 2012a). It was decided that one-third of pigs in each batch (~47 pigs) would be assessed.…”

“…Tail lesions were scored using an adapted version of Kritas and Morrison's (2007) tail scoring system used by Harley et al (2012a) (Figure 2). Skin lesions.…”

“…Tail lesion prevalence data collected on farms is seldom used to determine nation-wide prevalence (Taylor et al, 2010). Furthermore, only a handful of isolated studies have examined tail lesion prevalence by carrying out abattoir-based assessments (Hunter et al, 1999;Valros et al, 2004;Harley et al, 2012a). Similarly, information on loin bruising prevalence is limited, perhaps due to the fact that it has only recently been identified as a welfare issue (Harley et al, 2014).…”