The capacity of inspection on farm and at the abattoir to predict post-mortem outcomes in slaughter pigs: a study at animal level
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Date
2023
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Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate associations between ear, tail, and skinlesions, hernias, bursitis, and rectal prolapses at the abattoir and meat inspection out-comes in slaughter pigs, including carcass condemnations and trimmings, carcassweight, and carcass quality. This was an observational study whereby pigs were man-aged according to routine practices in a single abattoir. Data were collected from1816 pigs. The relationship between animal-based welfare and post-mortem out-comes was analyzed using generalized mixed models (Proc Glimmix). Our findingsshowed that tail lesions were associated with entire carcass condemnations and trim-mings (P< 0.001), a reduction in carcass weight (P< 0.05), and a potential to impaircarcass quality by reducing muscle pH (P< 0.05), especially in carcasses from malepigs (P< 0.05). Additionally, hernias were associated with viscera condemnation(P< 0.05) and a reduction in carcass weight (P< 0.05). Therefore, our findings con-firm that ante-mortem inspection could be useful to predict post-mortem outcomesin the same pigs, especially in cases of tail lesions and hernia, which might triggerattention of the veterinary inspector in charge of the post-mortem inspection.
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Keywords
Ante-mortem, Meat inspection, Pigs, Post-mortem, Welfare