The effects of season on health, welfare, and carcass and meat quality of slaughter pigs
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ORIGINAL PAPER
The effects of season on health, welfare, and carcass and meat quality of slaughter pigs Nikola Čobanović 1 & Silvana Stajković 1 & Bojan Blagojević 2 & Nikola Betić 3 Dragan Vasilev 1 & Nedjeljko Karabasil 1
&
Mirjana Dimitrijević 1 &
Received: 14 July 2019 / Revised: 8 July 2020 / Accepted: 26 July 2020 # ISB 2020
Abstract This study assessed the effects of season on health, behaviour, physiological stress parameters, and carcass and meat quality in a total of 480 slaughter pigs. The following health indicators were recorded: pneumonia, pleurisy, milk spots, and pericarditis. Behaviour was monitored during unloading (slipping, falling, turning back, reluctance to move, panting, shivering) and lairaging (panting, shivering, huddling). Blood lactate and glucose concentrations were determined at exsanguination. Performance indices (live weight, daily weight gain), carcass (carcass weight, backfat and loin thickness, lean meat content, carcass lesion score), and meat quality (pH, temperature, drip, thawing and cooking losses, colour, marbling) traits were measured postmortem. Pigs slaughtered in winter had the highest live weight, carcass weight, loin thickness, and carcass lesion score, while the lowest live weight, carcass weight, and backfat thickness were recorded in pigs slaughtered in summer. The highest lactate and glucose concentrations were recorded in pigs slaughtered in summer. The highest prevalence of red, soft, and exudative meat was recorded in pigs slaughtered in winter. Pigs slaughtered in summer had the lowest pH, the highest thawing loss, L* value, b* value, and occurrence of pale, soft, and exudative meat. Pigs slaughtered in autumn had the lowest drip loss, cooking loss, L* value, b* value, and the greatest percentage of red, firm, and nonexudative meat. In conclusion, the summer and winter temperatures compromised health and welfare and reduced carcass and meat quality in slaughter pigs, indicating that protection against heat and cold stress is not yet effective. Keywords Carcass lesions . Cold stress . Heat stress . Pig welfare . PSE pork . RSE pork
Introduction The climatic environment is among the crucial factors that affect the production performances of farm animals and impact worldwide livestock production (Renaudeau et al. 2012). Adverse effects of environmental temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and other climate factors cause thermal stress,
* Nikola Čobanović [email protected] 1
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Food Hygiene and Technology, University of Belgrade, Bulevar oslobodjenja 18, Belgrade 11000, Serbia
2
Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Trg D. Obradovića 8, Novi Sad 21101, Serbia
3
Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Kaćanskog 13, Belgrade 11000, Serbia
resulting in impaired health and welfare, and even death if the conditions are severe or prolonged (Renaudeau et al. 2012; Čobanović et al. 2019a, 2020a). In response to thermal stress, animals make some signifi
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