Genetic group and horns presence in injuries and economic losses of bovine carcasses

Abstract

Assessment of carcass bruises in steers and cull females, classified during unloading at the slaughterhouse according to genetic dominance in zebu and taurine cattle, and the presence of horns, including polled, horned and mixed batches. We considered horned the batches that included more than 20% of horned animals and mixed the batches that included less than 20% horned animals. The data were collected in a commercial slaughterhouse and included 93 batches, with a total of 2,520 animals, from different regions in Rio Grande do Sul. After evisceration, the bruises were identified and recorded in the different carcass regions: hip, round, ribs, forequarter and loin area per animal and batch. The weights of the removed tissue due to bruising was based on the average weights of various samples of bruises according to their degree of severity. Regarding the number of bruises per animal, no differences (P > 0.05) were observed between genetic groups, however, when comparing the total bruises per batch, differences were observed in all carcass regions, except for the forequarter, with a greater number of injuries in zebu than in taurine carcasses. The individual assessments showed 86.2% (P < .05) more bruises in the ribs region in horned than in polled animals carcasses. Horned batches had higher bruises mean (P < .05) compared to the polled, with increases of 65.1; 131.7 e 132.8 % in total bruises in the carcass, ribs and forequarter, respectively. The mixed batches did not differ from polled and horned batches. Zebu animals were responsible for higher industry loss totaling 1.21 kg, resulting in a economic loss of R $ 15.48 per carcass. The presence of horns resulted in greater carcass loss, 1.13 kg, with economic loss of R $ 16.11 per carcass. The bruises on carcasses are affected by the breed group and presence of horns, with zebu and horned groups leading to greater economic losses for the meat production chain. Key words: Animal welfare. Carcass cuts. Taurine. Zebu. ResumoFoi realizado um estudo para avaliar as contusões na carcaça de machos castrados e fêmeas de descarte, classificados ao desembarque no frigorífico segundo a predominância genética em taurinos e zebuínos, e a presença de chifres, incluindo mochos, aspados e mistos. Foram considerados aspados os lotes que incluíam mais de 20% de animais aspados, e mistos menos de 20% de animais aspados. coletados em uma empresa frigorífica do RS, por intermédio da análise de 93 lotes, totalizando 2.520 animais, provenientes de diferentes regiões do estado. Após a evisceração, na linha de abate, foram identificadas as contusões e contabilizadas de acordo com as regiões da carcaça: quadril, traseiro, costela, dianteiro e lombo, por animal e total do lote. Os pesos dos tecidos removidos devido às contusões foi baseado nos pesos médios de várias amostragens das contusões de acordo com o grau de severidade das mesmas. Não houve diferenças (P > 0,05) no número de contusões por animal entre os grupos genéticos, porém, quando comparados os totais por lote, observ...

Understanding the effects of the bovine POLLED variants

“…The primary function of horns is male competition for mates (Lundrigan 1996), but they are also used for protection against predators and to aid in competition for resources (Stankowich & Caro 2009), and they may be involved in thermoregulation (Pares-Casanova & Caballero 2014). However, domestic cattle with horns pose a risk to other cattle and handlers (Knierim et al 2015), and can result in economic losses because of damaged hides and bruised tissue which must be trimmed when the meat is processed (Mendonca et al 2016;Youngers et al 2017).…”

Economic losses due to hematoma in bovine carcasses from the north central mesoregion of Paraná

“…Variations in the prevalence of carcass lesions may occur because of differences in methods used to diagnose and record hematomas (Huert et al, 2015). Using the method outlined by Frasão et al (2014), 89.6% of animals were found to present lesions, whereas using the method of Mendonça et al (2016) 66.10% of animals were found to have hematomas in their carcasses.…”

“…Da Frasão et al (2014) found 682 bruises in 320 carcasses, corroborating the findings of the present study that also detected more than one hematoma per carcass. Mendonça et al (2016) studied the carcass contusions in zebu and taurine animals and obtained a mean of 2.31 and 1.74 contusions per animal, respectively. In this study, there was no distinction of races.…”

Welfare of cattle at slaughter

“…In stable groups, the horn status itself is not necessarily related to bruising in cattle (Youngers et al., 2017). However, the presence of horns is one of the factors potentially contributing to bruises found in cattle carcasses (Mendonça et al., 2016). Bruising may occur at loading, during transport, but also after arrival at the slaughterhouse, e.g.…”