Characteristics of bruises in carcasses of cows sourced from farms or from livestock markets

Abstract

Bruises in cattle develop after the application of force, and they provide evidence for sub-optimal animal welfare. The aim of this study was to describe the gross characteristics of bruises in cows arriving at the slaughterhouse directly from farms or through the livestock market. The number of bruises and their distribution on the carcass as well as their severity, shape, size and colour were assessed post mortem in a slaughterhouse in Chile. A total of 258 cow carcasses were evaluated, and a total of 846 bruises were found on 243 of the carcasses. Cows that had passed through a livestock market (M-carcasses) had in total 563 bruises (mean 3.8 bruises/carcass, s.d. 2.0), whereas cows transported directly from farms (F-carcasses) had in total 283 bruises (mean 2.5 bruises/ carcass, s.d. 1.8). The backs of F-carcasses had twice as many bruises as M-carcasses (32.9% and 16.2%, respectively), whereas bruises in the rib area were more frequently observed in M-carcasses (13.1%) than in F-carcasses (8.1%). Superficial bruises (grade 1) were the most frequently observed (66.2% of all bruises). Regarding the size of the bruises, 64 (7.6%) were classified as large, 271 (32.0%) as medium and 511 (60.4%) as small. Irregularly shaped bruises were the most frequent (91.1%, n 5 771), followed by linear (3.8%, n 5 32), circular (3.1%, n 5 26) and tramline-shaped bruises (1.9%, n 5 16). The latter were noticed only in M-carcasses, which may indicate that these animals were beaten more frequently with sticks or other rod-shaped objects. Fresh, bright red-coloured bruises were found more frequently on all the animals (69.5% from farms and 70.5% from market) compared with bluish (29.7% and 29.3%, respectively) and yellow bruises (0.4% and 0.2%, respectively). The method of selling was significantly associated with the number of bruises on the carcass (P , 0.001) and the anatomical site (P , 0.05), but not with the severity, shape and colour of the bruises. Increased fat coverage reduced the severity of bruises (P , 0.001). This study shows that, in Chile, market animals have more bruises than those sourced directly from farms, and their distribution is different. More information about the causes of infliction may help reduce bruises and it may also improve their welfare. Further studies are required to elucidate whether the causes of the high bruising in the case of animals passing through markets are related only to extra handling (repeated loading, unloading, transportation, eventual mixing) or to the way of handling by personnel and inadequate design.Keywords: bruises, markets, farms, cattle, welfare ImplicationsBruises are subcutaneous lesions that become visible after the skin has been removed during the dressing of a carcass, and they are indicators of sub-optimal welfare conditions during the pre-slaughter period. Characteristics of bruises such as size, colour, shape and grade may provide information about the extent of sub-optimal welfare. In our study, we compared bruises on the carcasses of cows obtained from two type...

A note on the effects of pre-slaughter operations of llamas (Lama glama) on the concentrations of some blood constituents related to stress and carcass quality

“…As a bright red colour is characteristic of fresh bruises (Grandin 2000), the observation of bruises of this colour mainly, confirms that lesions were recent (less than 24 hours) and were most likely produced during the immediate pre-slaughter period, probably during transit, at unloading, during lairage or during handling at the slaughterhouse. This has been also found in cattle (Strappini et al 2012) and lambs (Tarumán and Gallo 2008).…”

Bruises in culled cows: when, where and how are they inflicted?

“…Bruises were defined as lesions where tissues were crushed with the rupture of vascular supply and the accumulation of blood and serum (Chile INN, 2002). The carcass was virtually divided into various areas and the observer was instructed to record the number and the characteristics of the bruises: size, severity grade, shape and colour as defined in Strappini et al (2012). The head and the belly of the animal were excluded.…”

Effects of ractopamine administration and castration method on the response to preslaughter stress and carcass and meat quality in pigs of two Piétrain genotypes1

“…To distinguish between bmises inflicted at the farm and in the antemortem period, bruises were also classified by the age of infliction based on the color change, in terms of "red," corresponding to a fresh bruise (occurred within 10 h), and "dark" (occurred more than 24 h before) for an old bruise as described by Gracey and Collins (1992) and Strappini et al (2012). As there is evidence that the typical boar behavior is maintained until the second vaccine injection (Fàbrega et al, 2010), this measurement particularly provides indirect information on the difference in social behavior of boars before and after mixing before transport.…”