Sensibility during slaughter without stunning in cattle.

The following matter needs to be addressed. In his seminal works on the circulus arteriosus in Cerebri Anatome in 1664 and De Anima Brutorum in 1672, Thomas Willis described the blood supply to the base of the brain in a number of animal species and, more importantly, founded the discipline of clinical neuroscience. The detailed comparative physiology and species differences between ovine and bovine brain vascular supply were further elucidated by Baldwin and Bell (1963a). They described the vascular supply to the calf's brain from the carotid and the vertebral arteries. The common carotid bifurcates to give the larger external carotid, which becomes the internal maxillary; this supplies the (carotid) rete mirabile. The other part of the bifurcation in the immature calf is the internal carotid, which reduces in size as the animal matures, and also supplies the (carotid) rete mirabile. In all cases, the (carotid) rete mirabile supplies the circle of Willis via the residual portion of the internal carotid. The vertebral artery via the basioccipital plexus supplies the (carotid) rete mirabile and via the residual internal carotid empties into the circle of Willis. When the calf's carotid arteries are severed by the ritual cut, it appears that the vertebral artery has two possibilities of supplying the circle of Willis through the rete mirabile, mainly by the basiocciptal plexus with a lesser alternative supply via the occipitovertebral anastomosis, thence to the external carotid and the internal maxillary artery to the rete mirabile and finally to the circle of Willis.