Identificação das causas de fraturas post-mortem em coluna e caracterização de lesões de pele em suínos abatidos em um estabelecimento de Uberlândia-MG

Abstract

One of the major challenges in the pig production chain is to ensure adequate management throughout the breeding, transport, pre-slaughter management, until the slaughter of the animal. Care during these steps improves the welfare of the pigs and reduces damages with bruises and fractures that devalue the final product. Thus, the objective of the present study was to identify the causes of post-mortem fractures in the spine and to characterize skin lesions in pigs slaughtered at an establishment in Uberlândia MG. For this purpose, data were collected from 741 pigs regarding the incidence of fractures and information such as: carcass weight, origin of the animal and time of arrival of the lots to the slaughterhouse. In addition, a characterization of skin lesions was made regarding location and intensity. It was verified that 27.26% of the animals presented some type of fracture, and of this total, the region with the highest index is the flow with 17.41%. It was also found that of the 535 animals evaluated for skin lesions, 92.14% presented some type of lesion, but most of them had slight apparent lesions. The weight of the animals does not influence the occurrence of fractures (P> 0.05). On the other hand, the arrival time of the animals showed a significant difference (p <0.05), since the animals that arrived after 19:00 hours had fewer spinal injuries. Regarding the different origins observed, it was verified that there may be significant differences, but the determining factor was not the distance, since the original lot that presented the highest fracture index was not from the most distant city. It was concluded that the origin and the time of arrival to the cold storage unit are determining factors for the existence of column fractures in pigs.