The incidence of bruising in broiler flocks

Mayes, F. J.

doi:10.1080/00071668008416703

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Bruises are also an important source of information about animal welfare, and they are described as such in pigs (de Koning, 1985;Faucitano et al, 1998;Lambooij, 2000), poultry (Mayes, 1980;Gregory, 1994;Nijdam et al, 2004;Broom and Reefmann, 2005), rabbits (Liste et al, 2009), deer (Jago et al, 1996;Matthews, 2000), sheep (Cockram and Lee, 1991;Jarvis and Cockram, 1994;Tarumá n and Gallo, 2008) and horses (Grandin et al, 1999). In cattle, the observation of bruising is used to determine whether animal welfare is sub-optimal (Strappini et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Strappini

Frankena

Metz

et al. 2012

Animal

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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...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Strappini

Frankena

Metz

et al. 2012

Animal

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“…Survivability of females is higher than of males (Bogin et al, 1996). Moreover, the incidence of carcass bruises is positively correlated with temperature at transport and the weight of the animals for male broilers only (Mayes, 1980). These results indicate that high growth rates, in combination with a high body weight, make broiler chickens more susceptible to the detrimental effects of high ambient temperatures.…”

Section: T I~n~p~i Tmentioning

confidence: 83%

Haemorrhages in muscles of broiler chickens

Kranen¹,

Lambooij²,

Veerkamp

et al. 2000

World's Poultry Science Journal

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“…Levels of bruising appear to range very widely from 2.6% in the UK (Mayes, 1980), through 3.5 -8.0% in Australia (Griffiths and Nairn, 1984) to about 20% in the USA (Taylor and Helbacka, 1968). There are alleged differences in susceptibility between bird strains, sexes and degree of muscling.…”

Section: Physical Damagementioning

confidence: 99%

Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) on a request from the Commission related to the welfare of animals during transport

2004

EFS2

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The incidence of bruising in broiler flocks

Cited by 29 publications

References 8 publications

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

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

Haemorrhages in muscles of broiler chickens

Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) on a request from the Commission related to the welfare of animals during transport

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