The slaughtering procedures at agritourism farms must be carried out in accordance with the general and hygiene requirements of Regulations (EC) No 852 and 853/2004. In addition, regional laws define minimum requirements allowing some flexibility. Piglets and finishing pigs are the most frequently slaughtered animal in Sardinian agritourism farms. The aim of the present survey was to evaluate: ...

Assessing unconsciousness is important to safeguard animal welfare shortly after stunning at the slaughter plant. Indicators that can be visually evaluated are most often used when assessing unconsciousness, as they can be easily applied in slaughter plants. These indicators include reflexes originating from the brain stem (e.g. eye reflexes) or from the spinal cord (e.g. pedal reflex) and beha...

HUMANE SLAUGHTER: THE Ante-Mortem HANDLING Humane slaughter is the technical and scientific proceeding set that guarantees the animal welfare since loading, in the rural property, to the bleeding. The slaughter must be performed without unnecessary suffering. The humane conditions must be presented during preslaughter handling. The animal stunning is considered the most critical operation durin...

The long-lasting controversy on whether the contractile dysfunction observed in patients with coronary artery disease reflects hibernation – that is, a regulatory adaptation to persistent ischemia – or stunning – that is, an accumulation of reversible damage due to repeated periods of ischemia/reperfusion – is resolved. The perfect adaptation to persistent ischemia as seen experimentally can no...

While coronary thrombolytic therapy in clinical practice is well established for acute myocardial infarction, the injury associated with reperfusion ("reperfusion injury") is still under intense investigation regarding its nature and the strategy for its prevention. Reperfusion injury has been defined as cell injury caused by reperfusion itself, in contradistinction to cell injury caused by the...

The authors research by experiments to define the potency of wounding of a special mouse trap which belongs to the spring-guns. Besides the regular assigned 9 mm blank cartridge also the 9 x 17 mm "green" cattle stunning cartridge is tested. Shots were made on soap, cotton and skin on different conditions. As result the authors found that by close range shots (up to 1 cm) by the blank cartridge...

Despite many advances in percutaneous and surgical interventions in the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD), up to one-third of patients are still either not candidates or receive suboptimal revascularization. Calpains are a class of calcium-activated non-lysosomal cysteine proteases that serve as a proteolytic unit for cellular homeostasis. Uncontrolled activation of calpain has been fo...

Introduction Dysfunctional myocardium that remains viable has the potential for contractile recovery after reperfusion. Dysfunctional but viable myocardium has been broadly divided into two closely linked pathophysiological states, myocardial hibernation and stunning. Stunned myocardium is the result of an ischemic insult leading to contractile dysfunction despite adequate reperfusion. Hibernat...

Patients on hemodialysis have a high incidence of cardiac morbidity and mortality, and echocardiographic evidence of hemodialysis-related myocardial stunning supports a potential link between the hemodialysis treatment itself and cardiac sequelae. Fluid removal rates exceeding 13 mL/kg/hour during hemodialysis have been implicated in the development of myocardial stunning. Providers caring for ...

Dirk J. Duncker , Rainer Schulz , Roberto Ferrari , David Garcia-Dorado , Carlo Guarnieri , Gerd Heusch , Pieter D. Verdouw a,) a Experimental Cardiology, Thoraxcenter, Erasmus UniÕersity Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands b Department of Pathophysiology, UniÕersity of Essen, Essen, Germany c Fondazione Clinica del LaÕoro, Brescia, Italy d Hospital General UniÕersitairi, V...