Genetic group and horns presence in injuries and economic losses of bovine carcasses

Abstract

Assessment of carcass bruises in steers and cull females, classified during truck unloading at the slaughterhouse according to genetic dominance in zebu and taurine cattle, and the presence of horns, including polled, horned  and mixed batches. We considered horned the batches that included more than 20% of horned animals and mixed the batches that included less than 20% horned animals. The data were collected in a commercial slaughterhouse and included 93 batches, with a total of 2,520  animals,  from different regions of South Brazil. After evisceration, the bruises were identified and recorded in  the different carcass regions: hip, round, ribs, forequarter and loin area per animal and batch. The weights of the removed tissue due to bruising was based on the average weights of various samples of bruises according to their degree of severity. Regarding the number of bruises per animal, no differences (P> 0.05) were observed between genetic groups, however, when comparing the total bruises per batch, differences were observed in all carcass regions, except for the forequarter, with more number of injuries in zebu than in taurine carcasses. The individual assessment showed 86.2% (P<.05) more bruises in the ribs region in horned than in polled animals  carcasses. Horned batches had higher bruises mean  (P<.05) compared to the polled, with increases of 65.1; 131.7 e 132.8 % in total bruises in the carcass, ribs and forequarter, respectively. The mixed batches did not differ from polled and horned batches. Zebu animals were responsible for higher industry loss  totaling 1.21 kg, resulting in a economic loss of R $ 15.48 per carcass. The presence of horns resulted in greater carcass  loss, 1.131 kg, with economic loss of R $ 16.11 per carcass. The bruises on carcasses are affected by the breed group and presence of horns, with  zebu and horned groups causing major economic losses for the meat production chain.