Strengths and weaknesses of meat inspection as a contribution to animal health and welfare surveillance

Stärk, Katharina D.C.; Alonso, Silvia; Dadios, Nikolaos; Dupuy, Céline; Ellerbroek, L.; Georgiev, Milen I.; Hardstaff, Jo; Huneau‐Salaün, A.; Laugier, Claire; Mateus, Ana; Nigsch, Annette; Afonso, Ana; Lindberg, Ann

doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.11.009

Cited by 97 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Some researchers argue that these processes could make welfare-related carcass damage difficult to detect (Taylor et al, 2010;Aaslyng et al, 2013). However, others suggest that this damage may be more detectable after these processes (Harley et al, 2014;Stärk et al, 2014). It appears that the current study is the first to actually investigate this in a controlled way.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Understanding these effects may help to answer questions such as whether ante-or postmortem lesion inspection is the best option for abattoir-based welfare assessment in pigs. Stärk et al (2014) note that bruising to the skin of pigs is more likely to be observed at postmortem rather than antemortem inspection. This suggests that the scalding and dehairing of pig carcasses make bruising to the skin more visible, and it is possible that other types of skin damage will also become more visible on the carcass after it has been subjected to these processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Teixeira

Staaveren

Hanlon

et al. 2016

Animal

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There is increasing interest in developing abattoir-based measures to assist in determining the welfare status of pigs. The primary aim of this study was to determine the most appropriate place on the slaughter line to conduct assessments of welfare-related lesions, namely apparent aggression-related skin lesions (hereafter referred to as 'skin lesions'), loin bruising and apparent tail biting damage. The study also lent itself to an assessment of the prevalence of these lesions, and the extent to which they were linked with production variables. Finishing pigs processed at two abattoirs on the Island of Ireland ( n = 1950 in abattoir A, and n = 1939 in abattoir B) were used. Data were collected over 6 days in each abattoir in July 2014. Lesion scoring took place at two points on the slaughter line: (1) at exsanguination (slaughter stage 1 (SS1)), and (2) following scalding and dehairing of carcasses (slaughter stage 2 (SS2)). At both points, each carcass was assigned a skin and tail lesion score ranging from 0 (lesion absent) to 3 or 4 (severe lesions), respectively. Loin bruising was recorded as present or absent. Differences in the percentage of pigs with observable lesions of each type were compared between SS1 and SS2 using McNemar/McNemar-Bowker tests. The associations between each lesion type, and both cold carcass weight and condemnations, were examined at batch level using Pearson's correlations. Batch was defined as the group of animals with a particular farm identification code on a given day. The overall percentage of pigs with a visible skin lesion (i.e. score > 0) decreased between SS1 and SS2 ( P < 0.001). However, the percentage of pigs with a severe skin lesion increased numerically from SS1 to SS2. The percentage of pigs with a visible tail lesion and with loin bruising also increased between SS1 and SS2 ( P < 0.001). There was a positive correlation between the percentage of carcasses that were partially condemned, and the percentage of pigs with skin lesions, tail lesions and loin bruising ( P < 0.05). In addition, as the batch-level frequency of each lesion type increased, average cold carcass weight decreased ( P < 0.001). These findings suggest that severe skin lesions, tail lesions and loin bruising are more visible on pig carcasses after they have been scalded and dehaired, and that this is when abattoir-based lesion scoring should take place. The high prevalence of all three lesion types, and the links with economically important production parameters, suggests that more research into identifying key risk factors is warranted.Keywords: animal welfare, carcass condemnation, pigs, skin lesions, tail lesions ImplicationsAnimal welfare assessment at abattoirs has several advantages over traditional farm-based assessments. However, the extent to which routine carcass processing either masks or enhances the visibility of key welfare lesions is unclear. This research has confirmed that the visibility of loin bruising and tail lesions is improved by scalding and dehairing of carcasses. Mild app...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Teixeira

Staaveren

Hanlon

et al. 2016

Animal

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“…Meat inspection is a veritable tool in data gathering on notifiable diseases, zoonoses, and endemic production diseases. Furthermore, it can be used to monitor disease that may lead to monetary losses associated with meat condemnation and syndromic surveillance system for improved detection of disease outbreaks [5,[28][29][30][31]. Identifying and quantifying the causes of liver condemnation is the first step in diseases surveillance aimed at preventing further liver losses at the abattoir.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Quantitative Assessment of Causes of Bovine Liver Condemnation and Its Implication for Food Security in the Eastern Cape Province South Africa

et al. 2017

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Food production needs to double, with minimum waste, if hunger and poverty is to be alleviated in South Africa. The condemnation of liver during meat inspection represents a huge waste of a protein food resource. This paper measures the quantity of liver condemned in three abattoirs in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and assesses the causes and the monetary loss associated with these condemnations. A retrospective study (RS) (n = 51 302) involving the use of abattoir slaughter records from 2010-2012 and a post-mortem meat inspection (PMMI) (n = 1374) was conducted from July to December 2013. The RS revealed the leading cause of liver wastage as fasciolosis (5.95%, 4.48%, and 2.7%), fibrosis (2.74%, 2.37%, and 1.0%), and abscessation (1.11%, 2.78%, and 1.5%) for the 2010, 2011, and 2012 respectively. During the PMMI, the same factors caused liver condemnation in addition to calcification (8.3%, 6.8%, and 3.2%), Cysticercosis bovis (1.7%, 2.4%, and 1.3%) and improper evisceration (4.8%, 12.4%, and 27.1%) for the abattoirs X, Y, and Z respectively. A total of R 343, 330 (USD 45,271.07) was lost due to the condemnation of liver between 2010 and 2012. The further loss of 3290.4 kg of liver was calculated for the six month in 2013, and its financial value was R 59, 227.2 (USD 5889.82). The result of this study provide baseline information on major causes of liver wastage in cattle slaughtered in South Africa as well as the direct financial losses and demonstrate the huge waste of ideal protein food source.

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“…It was primarily introduced to identify meat unfit for human consumption. Additionally, it was progressively used as a relevant source of data to monitor animal health and welfare conditions (Stärk and others 2014, Huneau-Salaun and others 2015). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rates of and reasons for condemnation of poultry carcases: harmonised methodology at the slaughterhouse

et al. 2017

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European hygiene regulations require the condemnation of any unsafe food. However, there is little information identifying and quantifying condemnation of poultry carcases at slaughterhouses. We present an in-depth view of rates of and reasons for the condemnation of broiler, turkey, meat and force-feeding duck, guinea fowl carcases in France. The experiment was conducted in 10 slaughterhouses. For one year, all condemnations were recorded on a standard form following a national reference system. The rates of and reasons for condemnation, as well as factors influencing variation were investigated. The global condemnation rates were 1.04 per cent for broilers, 1.85 per cent for turkeys, 1.23 per cent for meat ducks, 1.42 per cent for force-feeding ducks and 1.20 per cent for guinea fowl. Condemnation rates depended on several factors including slaughterhouse, animal gender and season. Reasons for condemnation varied with species, for example, the three main reasons for broilers were cachexia (41.8 per cent of condemned batches), generalised congestion (29.3 per cent) and non-purulent cutaneous lesions (14.2 per cent) versus conformation abnormalities (58.6 per cent), cachexia (14.61 per cent) and ascites (14.56 per cent) for meat ducks. While the condemnation rates can be considered low for all species, the difference between the rates of and reasons for condemnation highlights the need to lead species-specific epidemiological studies to improve the sanitary situation of poultry production.

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Strengths and weaknesses of meat inspection as a contribution to animal health and welfare surveillance

Cited by 97 publications

References 15 publications

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

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

A Quantitative Assessment of Causes of Bovine Liver Condemnation and Its Implication for Food Security in the Eastern Cape Province South Africa

Rates of and reasons for condemnation of poultry carcases: harmonised methodology at the slaughterhouse

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