Proteome changes in the longissimus thoracis bovine muscle in response to pre-slaughter stress were assessed on the basis of two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) data. In this study, the bootstrap resampling statistical technique and a new measure of relative change of the volume of 2-DE protein spots are shown to be more efficient than commonly used statistics to reliably quantify changes in...

There are many slaughter procedures that religions and cultures use around the world. The two that are commercially relevant are the halal and kosher methods practiced by Muslims and Jews respectively. The global trade in red meat and poultry produced using these two methods is substantial, thus the importance of the quality of the meat produced using the methods. Halal and kosher slaughter per...

Pre-slaughter and killing procedures can be regarded as prominent topics in fish culture management. Pre-slaughter procedures should be carried out without causing avoidable excitement, pain, fear or stress conditions, so to assure not only acceptable standards of fish welfare, but also high quality fish fillets. With regard to the sea bass and the sea bream, this paper aims to describe the eff...

BACKGROUND During the pre-slaughter period, animals experience novel environment and procedures which may cause reduced welfare and suffering. Over the last decades, the slaughter industry has restructured into fewer and larger abattoirs, implying potential risks of transport stress, injuries, and impaired animal welfare. Since recently, however, there is growing interest in small-scale slaught...

The eating quality of meat is a function of the animal production and carcase processing that has been applied. While live animal factors (animal age, nutrition, breed, pre-slaughter stress) often have a marked effect on beef eating quality, in many cases the treatment of the carcase on the slaughter floor and in the chiller can have a far greater effect. This update, which follows on from Meat...

This paper briefly describes the formation of the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) Ad hoc Group on Humane Slaughter of Animals, summarises its initial discussions and provides details of its recommendations. These recommendations were approved (with some amendments) at the 73rd General Session of the OIE International Committee and have been included in the 14th edition of the OIE Ter...

Pre-slaughter handling practices, such as fasting, transport, mixing and human interventions affect the welfare of pigs carcase meat quality individually cumulatively. Behavioural physiological studies conducted during pre-slaughter period revealed that producer-controlled factors at farm, housing system, previous experience, genetics, gender, nutrition slaughter weight can have an impact on pi...