Fraturas post mortem em coluna vertebral de suínos associadas à insensibilização, peso e comprimento de carcaça de animais abatidos em Uberlândia-MG

Abstract

Pig production is a livestock activity that has social and cultural importance, also moving the economy. It is an activity that has been gaining efficiency and competitiveness in the market, maintaining a constant growth of the national production. Brazil is the fourth largest producer of pork in the world, behind only China, the European Union and the United States. To reduce economic losses, one of the goals of pig industry is to reduce the incidence of vertebral fractures in pigs, because it can depreciate cuts, affecting noble sites and difficult to remove without compromising the rest of the region or cut (shank, loin). Therefore, the objective of this research project was to characterize the occurrence of vertebrae fractures of post-mortem pigs and compared their occurrence with intrinsic factors to the animal (weight and length of carcass) and to establishment (voltage and amperage) in a slaughterhouse in Uberlândia-MG. To obtain the data, four visits were made to the slaughterhouse, from November 2018 to May 2019, and information of 868 animals was collected. At the visits, information on weight, carcass length, amperage and voltage of the electrodes in the desensitization, and quantity and location of vertebrae fracture were obtained. The data were transferred to Excel® worksheets and analyzed initially by descriptive statistics with frequency of occurrence of fractures. The relationship between the variables and the occurrence of fracture was evaluated by the unpaired t test with 95% significance (GraphPad Prism®). The results showed that 15.6% of the animals had a fracture in the vertebral column, and the sacral region had a greater number of fractures (14.7%) when compared to the cranial (0.4%) and medial column (0.5%). It was observed that heavier animals had a higher occurrence of fracture (P <0.05). In addition, it was identified that higher voltage and lower amperage were registered in the desensitization of animals with vertebrae fractures (P<0,005). It is concluded that the incidence of fractures is associated with multiple factors, which must be addressed to mitigate the occurrence of fractures and decrease the damage caused by this type of injury.