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 Federal Inspection Type slaughter house in the North and Central regions of Sinaloa, México. Four hundred forty-two bovine carcasses were randomly selected in a prospective observational study during 4 mo. Bruises were visually classified into 2 grades according to the amount of tissue affected (subcutaneous 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 a Fisher test in 2 × 2 contingency tables for 2 categories (Central and North regions). Seventy-six percent 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 the loin (47%) followed by ribs (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 1 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 better welfare for the animals as well as better financial profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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