Animal Welfare & Meat Production

Indian Meat Industry

• Livestock production and agriculture are intrinsically linked

• Livestock sector is an important sub sector of Indian

agriculture economy
• Acts as supplementary and complementary enterprise

• Livestock sector contributes approximately 4% of total GDP

and 25.6% to agriculture GDP
• Meat sector contributes to sustainable livestock production
through sustainable demand at reasonable returns
• Total meat production of India - 7.4 Million tones @ 5%
average growth rate
• Maximum meat production in Uttar Pradesh – 1346110 tones

• Poultry meat production – 3.4 million tones

• Indian meat export - 18,27,750.61 MT to the world worth of

Rs. 27,448.08/ 4,256.37 USD Millions in 2017-18
 Components of meat industry
• Trade in live animals
• Slaughter of animals by trained butchers in domestic market
• Slaughter of animals in organized abattoirs for export
• Transportation of fresh frozen meat
• Processed meat industry
• Processing of raw hides and skin for leather industry
• Rendering plant
• By products industry
• Pet food industry
• Medicinal and pharmaceutical uses
• Ornamental and other uses
Species 19th livestock Meat production Contributio
census 2012 (in (in tones) (2016- n % (2016-
million) 17) 17)

Buffalo 108.7 1450.98 19.80

Cattle 190.9 337.91 4.72

Goat 135.2 1041.11 14.25

Sheep 65.07 556.44 7.68

Pork 10.3 468.80 6.50

Poultry 729.2 3463.65 47.05

• Meat purpose rearing species- goat, sheep, poultry , pig

• Spent meat species- cattle, buffalo

• Myths and taboos related to meat of different species

• No religious taboos related to- goat, sheep and poultry

• Buffalo meat- black gold of India (75% of total meat export

and foreign earnings)

 Major players for meat exports in India

• Hind agro Industries Ltd.

• Allanason’s Ltd

• Punjab Agro

• Arabian Exports

• Al Kabeer Pvt. Ltd

• Fair Exports

• MKR

• Al Ali Exports Pvt. Ltd

 Major players in poultry industry

• Venkey’s (I) Ltd.

• Sugna group

• Swift foods

• Gold chicks group

• Star chicks

• Godrej Agrovet

• Venketshawara hatcheries
 Export statistics for different meat and meat
products during the last three years

2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

Rs. Rs. Rs.
Type of meat Qty Crore Qty Crore Qty Crore

Buffalo Meat 1314533.59 26688.08 1323576.11 26161.49 1350563.48 26033.83

Sheep/Goat 21635.69 833.9 22008.58 869.74 21906.51 835.75

Poultry 659304.15 768.72 448724.73 530.44 453966.53 552.16

Other Meat 0 0 12.07 0.21 1044.43 16.43

Processed 279.42 6.16 140.9 4.58 269.66 9.91

Total 19,95,752.85 28,296.86 17,94,462.39 27,566.46 18,27,750.61 27,448.08

Source: GCIS
 Scenario of Abattoirs

• About 4,000 registered slaughter houses with the local bodies

• More than 25,000 unregistered premises

• The existing condition of majority of municipal slaughterhouses is
miserable
• Low hygiene standards posing a major public health and
environmental hazards
• However, Food Safety Regulations 2011 (Licensing and
Registration of Food Business), all slaughter houses are required to
be licensed and registered with FSSAI
 According to FSSAI
• Any slaughterhouse handling more than 50 large animals or 150
small animals or 1000 poultry birds shall compulsorily obtain
license from the centre
• slaughterhouses handling 3-50 large animals or 11-150 small
animals or 51-1000 birds shall have license from the State
• Butchers handling upto 2 large animals or 10 small animals or 150
birds shall also ensure registration certificate
• Meat processing units having capacity to process upto 500 kg of
meat per day or 150 MT per annum shall have State FSSAI license
exceeding which will involve license from Centre FSSAI
 Challenges in Indian meat industry
• Unorganized slaughter houses
• Myths related to meat consumption
• Insanitary and unhygienic conditions
• Zoonotic diseases- a major concern
• Animal cruelty and no welfare
• Lower carcass weight and dressing percentage
• Infancy stage of processed meat industry
• No maintenance of cold storage
• No proper utilization of by products
• No proper implementation of breeding policies
Basic principles of an organized abattoir

Wholesome and safe meat production

Animal welfare
Economics
 Animal welfare

The state of complete mental and physical health in which

an animal is in harmony with its environment ( Hughes, 1975;
Bosissy et al., 2002)
• Includes science, ethics and law

– Welfare science considers effects of human on the animal from

animal’s points of view
– Welfare ethics considers human actions towards animals

– Welfare legislation considers how human must treat the animals

 Animal welfare beliefs include:

• Animal should be treated humanely regardless of how they are used

(slaughter for meat production)

• Animal should receive proper housing and nutrition

• Animal should receive proper care for disease prevention and

treatment for injuries

• Euthanasia or slaughter should be done in a humane way

 Laws related to animal welfare and health in India

• Prevention of cruelty to animals act, 1960 (as amended by Central

Act 26 of 1982)
• Glanders and farcy act, 1899

• Dourine act, 1910 ( Act No. V of 1910)

• Livestock importation act (Amendment) act, 2001

• Poisons act, 1919

• Dangerous drugs act, 1930

• Prevention of food adulteration act, 1954

• Indian Veterinary Council act, 1984

 Conti....

• Bio-diversity act, 2002

• Milk and milk products order, 1992

• Meat food products order, 1973

• Raw meat (quality control and inspection) rules, 1992

• Food safety and standards act, 2006

• Prevention and control of infectious and contagious diseases in

animals act, 2009

Five freedoms or basic animal needs
( Farm Animal Welfare Council, 1976)
 Genetics Nutrition
Animal welfare
Social environment
Cooking

Ageing time
Meat quality Climate

Slaughter procedure

Pre slaughter care

Diseases

Lairage time
Animal husbandry practices
Transportation
 Animal welfare at farm level

• The monitoring of all aspects of husbandry practices at the farm

should be the first step
• Farmers can contribute to food safety by producing healthy, clean
and unstressed animals for slaughter
 Production of clean animals

• To avoid infection of food poisoning pathogens as well animal stress

and excoriation of skin
• Unclean animals may be due to

– lack of bedding

– high stock density

– poor ventilation causing condensation

– poor drainage

– inadequate floor gradient

– infrequent removal of slurry

 Production of healthy animal

• An ethos of good husbandry and stockman ship on the farm is

essential
• Problems related to health of animals at farm
– Unhygienic use of I/M, I/V or S/C syringe
– Injuries and trauma to animals
– Production of abscess, necrosis etc.
– No vaccination of animals
– Dampness and higher humidity at shelter
– Frequent use of anti helminthetics
– Excessive antibiotics or feed additives
– Improper disposal of animal waste
 Production of stress free animal

• Essential to produce stress free animals from animal welfare point of

view as well as for wholesome meat production
• Stress condition in animal may induce various conditions like PSE
and DFD
• Pre slaughter feeding of sugar cane to restore glycogen in animal

• Ad libitum watering and rest to animals

• Animal should be able to express normal social behavior

 Effect on Meat Quality

Normal Meat DFD Meat PSE Meat

(Dark, Firm & Dry) (Pale, Soft &Exudative)
 Points to be considered at farm level

• Regular monitoring and correction of housing structure and layout

• Avoid over crowding as well as under crowding

• Proper disposal of animal waste

• Proper deworming and vaccination of animals

• Separation of clean and dirty animals

• Take care of withdrawal period

 Livestock Markets

• Basically regulated by the local municipality, panchayats, etc. at

domestic market
• But, the share of meat animals sold is largely through informal
channels

Farmer - Middle man - Slaughter house

• Factors affecting the price are:
Size Age Average meat yield
Breed Sex Quality
Locality Season Parent performance
• Government of India has established marketing cells in various
states
• Regulation of existing markets and to organize co-operative
markets
• Health and nutritious status of animals in market

• A major challenge for local administration to control the condition

• Bann on export of live animals

 Transportation of Animals

• Large and integral part of meat industry

• Essential to keep animals free from contamination
• Slaughter house should be close to point of production to avoid long
journey
• Avoid sudden stops and starts, fast cornering and unnecessary delays
• Animal waste should be collected and composting into manure in the
from of slurry
• Unloading ramp shouldn’t be > 300 to avoid fall, injury or distress
to animal
• Transportation mortality should be ideally not > 0.5%.
• Transportation shrinkage due to loss of tissue, shrinkage of muscle,
loss of urine and dung
• Proper watering and feeding of animals
• Proper rest to animals and no stress
– In cattle/ sheep/ goat- 14 hours journey + 1 hour rest + 14 hours
journey
– In pigs- 24 hours continuous journey with excess of water
 Animals at risk

•The very large or obese

•The very young or very old

•Those who are excitable or aggressive

•Animals who get motion sickness (pigs)

•Animals who are unused to humans

•Females in the last third of pregnancy

•Females in heavy lactation

•Culled and spent animals

•Pre-transport handling
 Herding, grouping and collection
 Withholding food and water
•Loading
 Handling  facilities and stockmanship
 Type of vehicle
•Transport in vehicle
 Sea vs. road (air)
 Distance and duration
 Type of vehicle and driver’s skills
 Road surface
•Unloading
 Animal health and stress
Faulty transportation of animals
 Conditions induced by faulty transportation

Shipping or transient fever

• Fatigued cattle by a long journey by rail or sea
• Without sufficient food, particularly during cooler weather
• Pasturella hameolytica along with viruses and Mycoplasma
infecting synergistically
• It causes acute and toxemic bronchopneumonia
• High fever, depression, anorexia and consolidated lungs with
accumulation of serofibrinous exudates in interlobular space
 Transient tetany
• Occurs invariably in advanced pregnant cows in warmer months of
year.
• Resemblance to milk fever but respond to calcium therapy

Salmonellosis
• Occur in young animals, calves and lambs
• Precipitated by transport stress and compounded by lack of water
and by chilling
• It may also because of poor cleaning and disinfection of transport
vehicles as well as because of poor vehicle design
 Pre-slaughter care of animals

• Loading and unloading are the most stressful both animals and
handlers
• Animals should be given rest at lairage to avoid transportation
stress
• Animal behavior should be given prime importance

• Pre slaughter sugar feeding to avoid stress

• Fasting- 8 hours for small animal and 14 hours for large animals

• Ad libitum of water supply

• Stocking density in lairage pan

– 2.3m2/ animal for cattle

– 0.6m2/ animal for pigs

• Passage of the lairage should be curved

• Dead animal room should be nearer to lairage and away to slaughter
area
• Better appearance, proper bleeding and non contaminated
evisceration
 Role of stress on meat quality

• Environmental stimuli resulting into extreme changes in animal is

stress
• Stress cause strain to homeostasis to adopt various biochemical
reaction in body

• Alarm reaction–
– Acute condition

– Release of catecholamine

– PSE in pigs

– Extreme stress to animal may lead to death of animal

 Conti....

• Chronic reaction
– Release of ACTH acts on adrenal cortex

– Resulting in increase of glycogenolysis

– Decrease glycogen level in muscle

– DFD condition in animals

– Poor meat quality

 Ante mortem examination and animal welfare

• Ante mortem should be done:

• Immediately or after some rest
• static as well as in motion
• General or system wise
• distance or close examination
• Increase the efficiency of post mortem
• Diagnose the disease- like GID, rabies, lead poisoning
• Decrease the chances of the contamination
• It helps to get rid of zoonotic diseases
 Humane slaughter

• An important aspect for animal welfare as well safe meat production

• Stunning of animals to avoid unnecessary sufferings and pain

• Appropriate method of stunning and sticking of animals

• Stunning to sticking interval should be minimum

• Bleeding time

 Cattle 6-8 minutes

 Pig 5-6 minutes

 Poultry 1.5-2.0 minutes

Points of captive bolt stunning in different animals
Electrical stunning device

Gas stunning chamber

 Emergency slaughter and animal welfare

• Recommended when animal is in acute pain

• Suffering from a condition where any delay in slaughter would be

contrary to the welfare of animal
• Under strict supervision of Veterinarian

• Conditions- external injuries, recent fracture, blot, prolapse of uterus

etc.
 Modern meat hygiene system

• “Stable to table”, “Gate to plate’, “Farm to fork system”

• Ensures production of wholesome and safe meat

• Animal welfare at each and every step of production

 At farm services Transportation via appropriate
method

Stunning and
slaughter of animals

Meat products at
consumer level
FARM TO FORK SYSTEM
Dressing and storage of
raw carcass

Primary ad secondary
processing
Distribution via wholesale and
transport system
In vitro meat- a solution to animal cruelty
or
question mark to food ethics
 Conclusion

• Animal welfare standards have been formulated at each and every

step of meat industry worldwide including India

• Meat production in India is still largely an unorganized activity with

huge gap between regulations and abattoir practices

• Welfare problems during transport and pre-slaughter handling in

animals have a negative influence

• Cruelty to animals may lead to poor meat quality as well loss of
economics
• Meat quality, animal welfare and economics are main primes of an
abattoir
• Maintain normal animal behavior and 5 freedoms to animals

• Proper implementation of laws and certifications like FSSAI,

APEDA
Farm to fork system
or
Gate to plate system