Relationship between animal-based on-farm indicators and meat inspection data in pigs

Johanna Witt; Joachim Krieter; Kathrin Büttner; Thore Wilder; Mario Hasler; Ralf Bussemas; Stephanie Witten; Irena Czycholl

doi:10.1186/s40813-024-00359-9

Relationship between animal-based on-farm indicators and meat inspection data in pigs

Porcine Health Manag. 2024 Jan 25;10(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s40813-024-00359-9.

Authors

Johanna Witt¹, Joachim Krieter², Kathrin Büttner³, Thore Wilder², Mario Hasler⁴, Ralf Bussemas⁵, Stephanie Witten⁵, Irena Czycholl⁶

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Animal Breeding and Husbandry, Christian-Albrechts-University, 24098, Kiel, Germany. jwitt@tierzucht.uni-kiel.de.
² Institute of Animal Breeding and Husbandry, Christian-Albrechts-University, 24098, Kiel, Germany.
³ Unit for Biomathematics and Data Processing, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Justus Liebig University, 35392, Giessen, Germany.
⁴ Lehrfach Variationsstatistik, Christian-Albrechts-University, 24118, Kiel, Germany.
⁵ Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute, 23847, Westerau, Germany.
⁶ Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 106 91, Frederiksberg, Denmark.

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to validate slaughterhouse indicators collected during meat inspection as an alternative to on-farm animal welfare indicators. For this purpose, the assessments of twelve on-farm and seven slaughterhouse indicators of 628 pigs from three different farms were combined into three indices, differentiated between on-farm and slaughterhouse: (1) limb health, (2) other organ health, and (3) respiratory health. At first, an assessment at animal-level using agreement parameters was carried out to ascertain whether the same welfare or health issues were identified on-farm and at slaughterhouse, taking the production period (farrowing, rearing and fattening period) and the last weeks before slaughtering into account. Second, the connection of slaughterhouse findings on the individual on-farm health indices was examined using logistic regressions, to determine whether certain welfare issues can be better monitored using slaughterhouse indicators.

Results: Acceptable agreement was determined using the Prevalence-Adjusted Bias-Adjusted Kappa (PABAK) for the farrowing and fattening period, but not for the rearing period. A more detailed analysis of the weeks before slaughter shows that there is still a poor agreement 8 weeks before slaughter and an acceptable agreement 4 weeks before slaughter. This indicated the slaughterhouse indicators pneumonia, pleuritis and pericarditis as possible estimators of fever and deviant behavior on-farm and the slaughterhouse indicators bursitis and joint inflammations as possible estimators of lameness. In the second part of the analysis, the connection of slaughterhouse findings on the individual on-farm health indices was investigated; a significant influence of the farm on the limb and respiratory indices and no significant influence of the slaughterhouse findings could be determined, provided that all weekly assessments during the lifetime of the pigs have been taken into account. However, an influence of the slaughterhouse findings on the respiratory index and on the other organ index could be determined if only the weekly assessments four and eight weeks before slaughter, respectively, were taken into account.

Conclusions: In general, the possible suitable indicators detected by the PABAK, could replace some health-related indicators but a complete substitution of on-farm welfare assessment is not possible. In addition, the traceability over time must be investigated further.

Keywords: Animal health; Animal welfare; Animal welfare assessment; Animal-based indicators; Meat inspection data; Pig; Slaughterhouse findings; Slaughterhouse indicators.