Animal Handling and Meat Quality Concerns in Modern Swine Production

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Animal Handling and Meat Quality Concerns in
Modern Swine Production

• Mike Townsley
• Premium Standard Farms

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Sow Nursery Units
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Grow Finish
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Processing Plants
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Optimizing Animal Welfare

• Ethically Important       
• Employee and Animal Well-Being
• Basic Needs of Animals
• Customer and Regulatory Expectations
• Market Driven
• Welfare Friendly, Natural, Outdoor Meat Quality
• Personnel Safety
• Production Efficiencies

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Live Production

• Animal Husbandry
• Specific to age/use
• Nursery pigs, boars, bred sows
• Humane Euthanasia Procedures
• Age/weight appropriate
• Safe for personnel
• Animal Interactions
• Handling Sows
• Walking market hog pens

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Loading Livestock

• Load pigs at appropriate times
• Trained personnel load pigs
• Move small groups of pigs using sort boards.
• Keep pigs moving as continuously as possible.
• Monitor slope and footing.

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Transportation

• Keep ventilation cool.
• Trucks
• Clean with good footing and bedding if necessary.
• Drivers/companies accustomed to hauling and
  unloading pigs.
• Use driver training (NPB).
• Minimize waiting time at plant.
• Target lt30 minutes or DOAs increase.
• If time is longer, consider methods to cool.

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Receiving Animals

• Monitor
• Temperature, humidity, air flow and sprinklers.
• Wet pigs on arrival.
• Routinely check waterers.
• Minimize noise to facilitate to resting.
• Resting times
• Preferred minimum- 2 hours
• Absolute minimum-1 hour

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Unloading
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Pre-Slaughter Handling

• Dedicated supervisor/manager
• Trained employees
• No light duty or unassigned personnel.
• Strong disciplinary system. Reward system?
• Facilities, Lighting, Airflow
• Noise

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Pre-Slaughter Handling

• Working Equipment
• Chutes, Restrainers, Doors, Guillotine Gates
• Tools
• Whips, Slappers, Flags, Paddles, Panels, Witchs
  Cape
• Do not overcrowd pens
• Movement and stunning of down animals

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Quality Traits and Animal Handling

• Bruising
• Bloodsplash
• Color
• Drip Loss
• (Water Holding Capacity)
• Pass Rate

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Packer to Producer Feedback on Handling

• SOA/DOAs
• SIP/DIPs
• Trim Loss
• Condemns
• Quality Measures

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Training

• Set Standards/Guidelines
• Measure Performance
• Report to Employees
• Retrain and Follow Up
• Involve Employees in Ideas

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Training Challenges

• Production
• Lack of husbandry skills
• Urban workforce
• Plant
• Hogs are going to die in a short time anyway
• Traditionally Low Pay Area/Light Duty
• All Segments of Pork Chain
• A deficit of correlative measurements
• Buy-in from Management
• Sacrifice efficiency or cost for handling

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Emerging Issues

• Processing Procedures
• Tail/Teeth Clipping, Castration
• Sow Housing-Gestation Crates
• Space Allocations/Confinement
• Animal Welfare Legislation
• Antibiotic Usage

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Resources

• AMSA
• Universities
• NPB
• AMI
• LCI
• Grandin Livestock
• Europeans-Denmark, UK, etc.
• Literature Reviews