Prevalence and Characteristics of Bruises of Beef Cattle Carcasses from Two Regions of Northwest Mexico

Numerous risks associated with transport and handling of livestock cause bruising and poor welfare to animals. The objective of this work was to characterize bruises in bovine carcasses in a slaugtherhouse Federal Inspection Type in the North and Central regions of Sinaloa, México. Four hundred forty-two bovine carcasses were randomly selected in a prospective observational study during four months. Bruises were classified visually into two grades according to the amount of tissue affected: sub-cutaneous tissue (grade 1), and involving muscular tissue and sometimes bone (grade 2); shape (mottled, irregular, linear, circular and railways); size (small, medium and large); and location of bruises on the carcass (hindquarter, abdomen, rib, forehead, loin, coccygeal tuberosity, ischial tuberosity and tail), this assessment was supported by photographs. Data were analyzed with Fisher test in 2x2 contingency tables for two categories (Central and North regions). 76 % of the carcasses presented bruises, 40% from the north region and 36% from the Central region ( P = 0.001). The anatomical site most affected was loin (47 %) followed by rib (44 %). The most common shape bruises were circular, 29.41% in the North region and 32.81% in the Central region, (P = 0.01). Small size bruises were the most frequent (26.92% and 31.22%; P = 0.005) for the Central and North regions respectively. Finally, bruises of grade one represented 32.58% and 34.84% (P = 0.02) for Central and North regions respectively. It is concluded that the presentation of bruises on carcasses and anatomical sites affected indicates a need to improve transport conditions and personnel skills that result in a better welfare for the animals as well as better financial profit.