Evaluation of preslaughter stress responses during waiting time at lairage in dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius)

Correlation between circulating cortisol and indicators of stress and oxidant stress during the preslaughter operations in camels

“…Prior to slaughter, and following handling prior to loading, and during loading and unloading, animals are kept in the lairage area for rest and recovery from stress. However, a long period of housing without access to water and food could induce a significant increase in serum levels of COR and MDA associated with a decrease in CAT activity in camels (Lemrhamed et al, 2019). Therefore, it is necessary to transport and unload livestock without extending the rest period by more than 4 h before slaughter in the hot season (Pérez-Linares et al, 2015).…”

“…increase in MDA levels and adecrease in CAT activity in blood (El khasmi et al, 2015;Lemrhamed et al, 2018Lemrhamed et al, , 2019 and meat (Tabite et al, 2019).…”

“…In camels, several studies have evaluated the different situations of pre-slaughter stress, such as transport (Saeb et al, 2010;El khasmi et al, 2010), transport distance (El khasmi et al, 2015), loading density during transport (Lemrhamed et al, 2018) and waiting time at the slaughterhouse (Lemrhamed et al, 2019), and whose impact of stress significantly increased lipid peroxidation, drip loss and cooking loss of camel meat (Tabite et al, 2019). However, to our knowledge and so far, in the same species, other stress situations before slaughter have not been studied, such as the duration of waiting before loading, loading, unloading, water and food deprivation, and accompaniment to the slaughter room.…”

“…High circulating levels of cortisol (COR), the most used indicator of stress, have been reported in camels exposed to different stressful situations (Saeb et al, 2010;El khasmi et al, 2010El khasmi et al, , 2015Lemrhamed et al, 2018Lemrhamed et al, , 2019Tabite et al, 2019, Mohamed et al, 2021. In addition, oxidative stress sets in when the body becomes unable to fight against the overproduction of free radicals or reactive oxygen species (Agarwal et al, 2005), following a deficiency in enzymatic (catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase) and non-enzymatic antioxidants (Lykkesfeldt & Svendsen, 2007).…”

Relationship between 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Content and Quality Characteristics and Lipid Oxidation in Raw and Cooked Camel Meat during Cold Storage

“…However, in cooked meat, MDA and 25-OH-D were significantly higher than those observed in raw meat. In the dromedary camel, the postmortem pH and quality parameters of meat, could be impacted by the preslaughter stress conditions, such as transport distance , loading density (Lemrhamed et al, 2018), waiting period (Lemrhamed et al, 2019a), and the slaughter procedure used at the abattoir (Lemrhamed et al, 2019b). These factors are responsible for activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) (Swanson and Morrow-Tesch, 2001), inducting welfare violations and degradation of meat quality (Teke et al, 2014;Kober et al, 2014), leading to altered water holding capacity (WHC), tenderness and flavor during meat ageing (Ferguson and Warner 2008).…”