TY - JOUR
T1 - Prevalence of gross lesions and handling practices in pigs and their association with pork quality, Kiambu, Kenya
AU - Sentamu, Derrick Noah
AU - Onono, Joshua Orungo
AU - Muinde, Patrick
AU - Bor, Nicholas
AU - Chepyatich, Dorcas
AU - Thomas, Lian Francesca
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by; the University of Liverpool – Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (grant number 204822/Z/16/Z), the University of Liverpool Early Career Research Fund, The Soulsby Foundation, World Animal Protection and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through the One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre in Africa (OHRECA). DNS and DC are supported through ILRI Graduate Fellowships, funded by OHRECA and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). We also acknowledge the CGIAR Fund Donors (http://www.cgiar.org/funders). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We acknowledge the abattoir management and workers for their time and cooperation. We also acknowledge Nelly Bargoiyet Cheruiyot, Mary Nduati, Mary Mwihaki Kemboi and Dennis Kigano for their hard work during data collection. We thank Dishon Muloi and Robert Ofwete for assisting DNS & NB in learning to use ‘R’ and Nicholas Ngwili for assistance conceptualizing the causal diagram.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Sentamu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2022/8/26
Y1 - 2022/8/26
N2 - Pre-slaughter handling of pigs has been documented to affect the quality of meat though no studies have investigated this relationship in the Kenyan context. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of gross lesions and practices related to sub-optimal welfare in pigs presented for slaughter while analyzing the relationship between occurrence of these lesions and meat quality. A cross-sectional study was conducted at a medium scale, non-integrated pig abattoir supplying to the Nairobi market, with a capacity to slaughter approximately 40 pigs a day. Data on welfare-associated lesions and handling practices were obtained from 529 pig carcasses and traders respectively. 387 pork samples were collected, and their quality evaluated by measuring their pH, meat color and drip loss. These three parameters were used to classify pork into four recognized categories namely: Red, Firm, Non-exudative (RFN), Pale Soft Exudative (PSE), Dark Firm Dry (DFD) and Red Soft Exudative (RSE). Almost all pigs were inefficiently stunned as evidenced by the presence of consciousness post-stunning. The majority of pigs (82.97%) having one or more welfare-associated gross lesions. Other animal welfare malpractices observed were high loading density and inadequate rest periods between transport and slaughter. A quarter of the pork samples were of sub-optimal quality including: RSE (11.36%), PSE (2.58%) and DFD (2.58%). Multinomial logistic regression revealed that pork originating from pigs transported at a high loading density had increased odds of being classified as DFD (OR 13.41, 95% CI 2.59–69.46). The findings indicate the need to educate stakeholders in the pork value chains on improved pig handling before and during slaughter to enhance pig welfare preslaughter and pork quality post-slaughter. Animal welfare legislation enforcement and implementation was observed to be insufficient. There is a need to educate key stakeholders on its importance of being put into practice both from economic and welfare perspectives.
AB - Pre-slaughter handling of pigs has been documented to affect the quality of meat though no studies have investigated this relationship in the Kenyan context. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of gross lesions and practices related to sub-optimal welfare in pigs presented for slaughter while analyzing the relationship between occurrence of these lesions and meat quality. A cross-sectional study was conducted at a medium scale, non-integrated pig abattoir supplying to the Nairobi market, with a capacity to slaughter approximately 40 pigs a day. Data on welfare-associated lesions and handling practices were obtained from 529 pig carcasses and traders respectively. 387 pork samples were collected, and their quality evaluated by measuring their pH, meat color and drip loss. These three parameters were used to classify pork into four recognized categories namely: Red, Firm, Non-exudative (RFN), Pale Soft Exudative (PSE), Dark Firm Dry (DFD) and Red Soft Exudative (RSE). Almost all pigs were inefficiently stunned as evidenced by the presence of consciousness post-stunning. The majority of pigs (82.97%) having one or more welfare-associated gross lesions. Other animal welfare malpractices observed were high loading density and inadequate rest periods between transport and slaughter. A quarter of the pork samples were of sub-optimal quality including: RSE (11.36%), PSE (2.58%) and DFD (2.58%). Multinomial logistic regression revealed that pork originating from pigs transported at a high loading density had increased odds of being classified as DFD (OR 13.41, 95% CI 2.59–69.46). The findings indicate the need to educate stakeholders in the pork value chains on improved pig handling before and during slaughter to enhance pig welfare preslaughter and pork quality post-slaughter. Animal welfare legislation enforcement and implementation was observed to be insufficient. There is a need to educate key stakeholders on its importance of being put into practice both from economic and welfare perspectives.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137127278&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0272951
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0272951
M3 - Article
C2 - 36026517
AN - SCOPUS:85137127278
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 17
SP - 1
EP - 23
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 8
M1 - e0272951
ER -