When and what determines the death of an animal? A study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals
Slaughter of animals should consist of two steps in order to be considered humane. The first step of the slaughter process is stunning, with the purpose of inducing unconsciousness and insensibility in the animal. The second step is exsanguination, which causes bleeding and eventually death. What de...
| Autor principal: | |
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| Formato: | Second cycle, A2E |
| Lenguaje: | sueco Inglés |
| Publicado: |
2014
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| Acceso en línea: | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/6868/ |
| _version_ | 1855571083802968064 |
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| author | Jerlström, Josefine |
| author_browse | Jerlström, Josefine |
| author_facet | Jerlström, Josefine |
| author_sort | Jerlström, Josefine |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | Slaughter of animals should consist of two steps in order to be considered humane. The first step of the slaughter process is stunning, with the purpose of inducing unconsciousness and insensibility in the animal. The second step is exsanguination, which causes bleeding and eventually death. What death really means in these situations has been discussed intensively, but still no agreed definition has been accepted. Nonetheless, it is conceded that animals are declared dead when consciousness is irreversibly lost, and absence of respiration and blood circulation are observed. The Swedish Animal Welfare Act states that during slaughter, no further measures may be taken on the animal until its death has occurred. One question that arises is in respond to this is: Is an animal really dead, even though the heart beats, when the remainder of the slaughter process commences after stunning and exsanguination? The aim of this thesis was to investigate heart activity after stunning and exsanguination of cattle and fattening pigs at conventional commercial slaughter plants in Sweden in order to determine the exact time of cardiac arrest. In total, 108 cattle and 157 pigs from three different slaughter plants were observed using two different stethoscopes. A significant difference was found between the stethoscopes for both cattle and pigs (p ≤0.0001). Furthermore, significant differences were found between the two slaughter plants where data was collected on pigs (p ≤0.0001), but not between the slaughter plants where data was measured on cattle (p=0.24). The time from start of exsanguination to cardiac arrest was on average 5 minutes and 45 seconds for cattle and 2 minutes and 58 seconds for pigs. In conclusion, this study suggests that the definition of death in animal welfare contexts should be based both upon loss of brain and cardiac function. In future studies, this can be used to evaluate the possible implications this would have for the slaughter process and also the animal welfare. |
| format | Second cycle, A2E |
| id | RepoSLU6868 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Swedish Inglés |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU68682014-06-24T12:11:40Z https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/6868/ When and what determines the death of an animal? A study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals Jerlström, Josefine Agricultural research Slaughter of animals should consist of two steps in order to be considered humane. The first step of the slaughter process is stunning, with the purpose of inducing unconsciousness and insensibility in the animal. The second step is exsanguination, which causes bleeding and eventually death. What death really means in these situations has been discussed intensively, but still no agreed definition has been accepted. Nonetheless, it is conceded that animals are declared dead when consciousness is irreversibly lost, and absence of respiration and blood circulation are observed. The Swedish Animal Welfare Act states that during slaughter, no further measures may be taken on the animal until its death has occurred. One question that arises is in respond to this is: Is an animal really dead, even though the heart beats, when the remainder of the slaughter process commences after stunning and exsanguination? The aim of this thesis was to investigate heart activity after stunning and exsanguination of cattle and fattening pigs at conventional commercial slaughter plants in Sweden in order to determine the exact time of cardiac arrest. In total, 108 cattle and 157 pigs from three different slaughter plants were observed using two different stethoscopes. A significant difference was found between the stethoscopes for both cattle and pigs (p ≤0.0001). Furthermore, significant differences were found between the two slaughter plants where data was collected on pigs (p ≤0.0001), but not between the slaughter plants where data was measured on cattle (p=0.24). The time from start of exsanguination to cardiac arrest was on average 5 minutes and 45 seconds for cattle and 2 minutes and 58 seconds for pigs. In conclusion, this study suggests that the definition of death in animal welfare contexts should be based both upon loss of brain and cardiac function. In future studies, this can be used to evaluate the possible implications this would have for the slaughter process and also the animal welfare. För att slaktprocessen av lantbruksdjur ska klassificeras som human ska den ske i två steg: bedövning som gör djuret medvetslös och avblodning som orsakar blodförlust och leder till död. Vad som egentligen menas med död i slaktsammanhang är något som har diskuterats intensivt i världen men fortfarande finns det ingen vedertagen definition. Således finns det en acceptans om att djuren dödförklaras när medvetandet inte går att återfå och frånvaro av andning och blodcirkulation observeras. I den svenska djurskyddslagen finns det angivet att inga andra åtgärder får vidtas i slaktprocessen innan djuret är dött. En fråga som väcks då är: Är djuret verkligen dött när slaktprocessen fortsätter efter bedövning och avblodning och hjärtat fortfarande slår? Syftet med den här uppsatsen var att undersöka hjärtats aktivitet efter bedövning och avblodning på nötkreatur och slaktsvin i konventionella, kommersiella slakterier i Sverige för att fastställa den exakta tidpunkten för hjärtstillestånd. Totalt har 108 nötkreatur och 157 svin observerats på tre olika slakterier med två olika stetoskop. Resultaten visade signifikanta effekter mellan de två metoderna för både nöt och svin (p ≤0,0001). Vidare visade det signifikanta skillnader mellan de två slakterierna där data samlats på svin (p ≤0,0001), men däremot fanns det ingen signifikant effekt mellan slakterierna där data samlats för nötkreatur (p=0,24). Resultaten visar att tiden från starten på avblodningen till hjärtstillestånd var i genomsnitt 5 minuter och 45 sekunder för nötkreatur och 2 minuter och 58 sekunder för svin. Avslutningsvis föreslås att en definition av begreppet död i djurskyddssammanhang ska baseras på frånvaron av både hjärnans och hjärtats aktivitet. I framtida studier kan dessa resultat användas för att utvärdera om slaktprocessen påverkas av om hjärtat slår samt om det finns några eventuella djurvälfärdsproblem i samband med det. 2014-06-17 Second cycle, A2E NonPeerReviewed application/pdf sv https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/6868/1/Jerlstrom_J_140617.pdf Jerlström, Josefine, 2014. When and what determines the death of an animal? A study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals. Second cycle, A2E. Skara: (VH) > Dept. of Animal Environment and Health (until 231231) <https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/view/divisions/OID-880.html> urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-s-3358 eng |
| spellingShingle | Agricultural research Jerlström, Josefine When and what determines the death of an animal? A study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals |
| title | When and what determines the death of an animal? A study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals |
| title_full | When and what determines the death of an animal? A study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals |
| title_fullStr | When and what determines the death of an animal? A study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals |
| title_full_unstemmed | When and what determines the death of an animal? A study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals |
| title_short | When and what determines the death of an animal? A study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals |
| title_sort | when and what determines the death of an animal? a study investigating the heart activity during slaughter of farm animals |
| topic | Agricultural research |
| url | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/6868/ https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/6868/ |