Risk Factors affecting carcass and pork quality in pre-slaughter period

Skin damage and meat quality are very important issues for the whole pig industry as well as animal welfare. To investigate the real impact of pre-slaughter period and its entity on carcass apperance and meat quality, a Risk Assessment approach was applied on 1680 Italian heavy pigs which were examinated and frequency of pigsࢠbehaviour was recorded and related to carcass, ham, loin and shoulder/head damage. The operatorsࢠhandling was recorded too. The main potential cause of damage both unloading and to the stunning resulted the use of driving devices by operators for the highest frequency and calculated risk of lesions. The effect of pre-slaughter stress was also evaluated on some quality traits of pork. Twenty-eight pigs of different breed (Italian large White, Italian Duroc and Pietrain) were subjected to rough and gently handling before stunning and the level of lactate, pro-, macro- and total glycogen were evaluated in longissimus dorsi and semimembranosus musles. Pigs rough handled before death tended to presents muscles with lower level of pro-, macro- and total glycogen and higher level of lactate, with little differences among breeds. Also transport is known to be another very stressful event for pigs which influence skin damage score and meat quality. Data of 3.650 heavy pig batches were collected to identify the relationship between the transport and ham estetical and technological defects that make them rejected from PDO Parma Consortium. The results shown that short (<37 km) or long (>170 km) travel distances may have adeverse effects on the incidence of defects on fresh hams together the season of transport, where Autumn and Spingtime are the seasons with highest incidence of ham defects. Itࢠs clear that pre-slaughter events as transport and handling affect animal welfare and ham defects, total carcass damage and meat quality parameters.