Animal Health: Meat Production & Quality

• AS 353 Animal Health and Diseases focuses on meat production and meat borne diseases.
• Prof. WY Akwetey of the Department of Animal Science can be contacted at [email protected] or 0501349018.

Meat Production

• Meat production involves slaughtering animals for human consumption, applicable to beef, pork, lamb, and poultry.
• All meat animals must satisfy meat quality requirements.

Meat Quality

• Meat quality is influenced by best management practices: handling animals, health care, nutrition, and transportation.

Handling of Meat Animals

• Producers consider animal handling from birth to slaughter.
• Poor animal handling affects meat quality attributes like colour, juiciness, tenderness, taste, and spoilage.

Stress in Meat Animals

• Animals must be handled quietly to avoid stress, and stress depletes muscle glycogen.
• Stress has negative consequences for carcass and meat quality.

Effects of Stress on Beef

• Glycogen depletion due to stress results in dark red meat instead of bright red.
• Stress causes the meat to become firm, dry, and tough, preventing the pH from reducing to normal levels in 24 hours.
• High water holding capacity characterises meat from animals, also known as dark cutters, and it is referred to as DFD-meat.

Stress and Pork Production

• Stress in pork production causes the meat to appear very pale and soft, resulting in water loss called "weeping."
• The pH reduces faster than normal in 24 hours, and the water holding capacity is low.
• This condition is known as pale, soft, and exudative meat, or PSE-meat.

Animal Stress Factors

• Animal stress can result from animals fighting, weather changes, fasting, or transportation.

Pre-Slaughter Handling

• Animal handling is a growing concern globally.
• Developed countries show interest in animal welfare throughout the production and processing stages because poor handling impacts the animal, carcass, and meat quality.
• Developing countries should also take interest in improving pre-slaughter handling for beneficial effects on meat and carcass qualities.

Health and Quality Meat Production

• Animal health impacts the amount of fat within the meat (marbling) and the amount of exterior fat (seam).
• Both marbling and seam fat influence the tenderness and juiciness of meat.

Health and Nutrition

• The impact of Health and Nutrition (HN) on meat quality relates to how fast an animal grows.
• Diets with higher levels of energy and protein lead to healthier animals that reach acceptable market weight earlier.
• Younger slaughter age results in more tender meat and a more acceptable meat colour.

Disease Treatment

• Most animal diseases are treated with antibiotics.
• Animals under antibiotic treatment are disqualified from meat production.
• Withdrawal periods (7 days to months) are required for various antibiotics.

Pre-Slaughter Inspection

• Use only healthy animals for meat production.
• Inspection of animals before slaughter eliminates unhealthy stock (antemortem inspection).
• Identify suspected unhealthy animals for separation for veterinary examination and treatment.
• Considerations here are factors such as Locomotion (Injured, Non-ambulatory stock), Body conformation, Coat color, Behavior and Discharges.

Post-Slaughter Inspection

• Post-slaughter inspection assures the wholesomeness of meat.
• Assesments include sight, smell/scent, feel, and knife.
• Note abnormalities in colour, odour, size of organs, tissues, or lymph nodes.

Post-Slaughter Inspection Results

• If a carcass is just suspected, it should be separated and detained for further investigation.
• Partially condemned carcasses have affected parts trimmed or eliminated, and the remaining portions can pass fit for consumption.
• Wholly condemned carcasses are destroyed entirely if deemed unfit for human consumption, typically buried after treatment with acaricide or incineration.
• Carcasses that pass post-slaughter inspection are branded with a special mark to indicate their fitness for human consumption.

What Have You Learnt?

• The taste of meat does not accidentally taste good.
• Producers carefully care for the animal that produce meat.
• Attention is given to nutrition, healthcare/disease management, handling, and transportation.

Poor Quality Meat

• Poor quality meat exhibits poor processing properties, functional deficiency, poor eating quality, and is unacceptable to consumers.