Losses of both product quality and quantity during the critical pre-slaughter period are inevitable. These losses are the result of social, physical, environmental and nutritional stresses imposed on the animal between the farm/ feedlot and the abattoir knocking box. In the interests of animal welfare and beef quality, it is essential that effective management strategies be implemented to minim...

The effect of genotype, sex and hatch on carcass traits and physical characteristics of eggs was investigated in the Japanese quail. Two strains of Japanese quails including the White (P1) and Wild (P2) genotypes were chosen as the parental generation and crossed reciprocally (10 singlepair mating) to create the F1 progeny. The F1 birds (27 males and 81 females) were mated randomly to produce t...

BACKGROUND A number of studies document the prevalence of Taenia solium infections in Nigeria, yet these studies do not cover porcine cysticercosis in private home slaughter slabs where there is no routine meat inspection and backyard pig keeping, slaughtering and sale are common practice. METHODS An environmental and sanitary assessment was conducted within two unregistered home pig slaughte...

Islam is a comprehensive religion guiding the lives of its followers through sets of rules governing the personal, social, and public aspects through the verses of the Holy Qur'an and Hadiths, the compilation of the traditions of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), the two main documents that serve as guidelines. Islam is explicit with regard to using animals for human purposes and there is a rich traditi...

Finishing pigs carrying Salmonella enterica are believed to be the main source of carcass contamination at the beginning of slaughtering. The aim of this study was to assess the S. enterica carrier status of finishing pigs at herd level by sampling pooled faeces on farm and mesenteric lymph nodes at slaughter in the North East of Italy. Environmental faecal samples belonging to 30 batches of pi...

In the European Community, per-head consumption of chicken meat is steadily rising. Many consumers attempt eating more healthy products (BICKEL and WETSCHEREK, 2005) and that is why chicken meat with its low fat content is often preferred to beef or pig meat. Also events like the BSE-crisis or abuse of antibiotics in pig production, which are very present in the media, might lead the customers ...

The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to evaluate the health status of organic broiler chickens and the contamination rate with Salmonella and Campylobacter in organic broiler production in Belgium. The broilers were screened for antibodies against routinely monitored poultry diseases at 1 day old and at slaughter. Fecal examination for the presence of worm eggs was done at slaug...

BACKGROUND Delaying pigs from advancing through the production stages could have a negative impact on their health and performance. The objective of this study was to investigate the possible implications of delaying pigs from the normal production flow on pig health and performance in a farrow-to-finish commercial farm with a self-declared All-In/All-Out (AIAO) management. RESULTS Three flow...

Lamb growth, survival and carcass characteristics were compared for progeny of either 1/2-Suffolk, 1/2-Rambouillet (Western) ewes or 1/2-Suffolk, 1/4-Rambouillet, 1/4-Finnsheep (1/4-Finn) ewes produced over 3 yr in three different management systems. System 1 lambs were born in late fall and fed to slaughter on a concentrate diet. System 2 lambs were born in January and February and grazed pure...

Separate-sex rearing of slaughter ostriches was investigated as a management strategy to minimize skin damage. Day-old ostrich chicks were divided into three treatment groups; a group of mixed-gender and two single-sex groups, one male and one female. At three months of age, because of the large variation in live weights, the birds were sorted within treatment according to weight. Each gender t...