scholarly journals Welfare Problems in Cattle, Pigs, and Sheep that Persist Even Though Scientific Research Clearly Shows How to Prevent Them

Animals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Temple Grandin
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Meat Products ◽  
Economic Incentive ◽  
Marketing Systems ◽  
Handling Practices ◽  
Marketing Chain

Poor production and handling practices continue to persist that are both detrimental to animal welfare and financially burdensome. These practices continue to persist for three reasons: (1) a segmented marketing chain where a producer is not held financially accountable for losses; (2) failure to measure and assess chronic painful problems such as lame livestock; and (3) repeating old mistakes, such as housing fattening cattle for long periods of time on bare concrete. Two examples of the first type of losses are bruises caused by poor handling and sick cattle at feedlots caused by failure to vaccinate and precondition weaned calves at the farm of origin. In some segmented marketing systems, there is no economic incentive to vaccinate. When the animals get sick, the responsibility gets passed to the next person. Buyers of meat products can reduce these “passed on” losses by source verification. The first step to reducing problems, such as lame livestock, is to measure the percentage of lame animals and work with the producers to reduce them. Also, transportation payments should be changed and contracts should be based on the condition of the animals at delivery.

Animal Welfare and Scientific Research

Science ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 194 (4267) ◽  
pp. 862-862
Author(s):  
Nelson R. Eldred
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Scientific Research

Safety of Consumer Handling of Fresh Produce from the Time of Purchase to the Plate: A Comprehensive Consumer Survey

2002 ◽  
Vol 65 (8) ◽  
pp. 1287-1296 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMY E. LI-COHEN ◽  
CHRISTINE M. BRUHN
Keyword(s):  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Fresh Produce ◽  
Meat Products ◽  
Mail Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Outreach ◽  
Additional Mailing ◽  
Handling Practices ◽  
Handling Methods

A national mail survey focusing on consumer handling of fresh fruits and vegetables was conducted among 2,000 randomly selected households in the United States. The objective was to quantify consumer practices relating to the purchase, transport, storage, and preparation of fresh produce, with emphasis on practices that affect safety. Following an additional mailing procedure, a response rate of 33% was obtained. Six percent of the consumers responded that they seldom or never wash fresh produce, and more than 35% indicated that they do not wash their melons before preparation. Twenty-three percent of the respondents indicated placing their meat, poultry, and fish on a refrigerator shelf above other foods, and 9% do not place their produce at any specific location in the refrigerator. Almost half of the respondents indicated not always washing their hands before handling fresh produce. Ninety-seven percent of respondents reported that they always wash their food preparation surfaces after contact with meat products, yet 5% and 24% dry wipe or wash with water only, respectively. The results from this study suggest that women, lower-income households, people 65 years and older, and non–college graduates practice safer food handling methods than men, higher-income households, people younger than 65 years, and college or postcollege graduates. The survey findings suggest that consumer education materials should emphasize safe handling practices from purchase through consumption. Educational outreach should target specific subpopulations, men, college graduates, higher-income households, and people younger than 65 years because of their higher frequency of unsafe handling and washing practices.

Presence of Listeria monocytogenes in Ready-to-Eat (RTE) meat products sold at retail stores in Costa Rica and analysis of contributing factors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karol Calvo-Arrieta ◽  
Karol Matamoros-Montoya ◽  
María Laura Arias-Echandi ◽  
Alejandra Huete-Soto ◽  
Mauricio Alberto Redondo-Solano
Keyword(s):  
Listeria Monocytogenes ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Meat Products ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Food Contact Surfaces ◽  
Handling Practices ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Ammonium Compounds ◽  
Transfer Potential

Listeria monocytogenes is a pathogenic bacterium associated with RTE meat products sold at the retail level. The objective of this research was to determine the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in RTE meat products sold at retail in Costa Rica and to study the factors associated with the levels of contamination; analyzed factors include hygienic practices within stores (cutting techniques, microbial contamination of products) and the behavior of the isolates (persistence against antimicrobials and transfer potential). A total of 190 samples of RTE meat products were collected and analyzed for the presence of coliforms and Listeria species.  Isolates of L. monocytogenes were then evaluated in terms of resistance to disinfectants (quaternary ammonium compounds and chlorine) and their transfer potential from food contact surfaces (knife and cuttingboards). Overall Listeria spp. prevalence was 37,4% (71/190); L. innocua was present in 32,1% (61/190) of the products and L. monocytogenes was found in just 2,6% (5/190) of the samples. Most of the contaminated samples were cut with a knife at the moment of purchase (44,2%). When analyzing practices within the stores, it was observed that L. monocytogenes transfer from inoculated knife to “salchichón” was higher for samples cut right at the beginning of the experiment. Also, L. monocytogenes transfer from inoculated cuttingboards was independent of the number of slices but contamination from plastic was higher than wood. Regarding L. monocytogenes resistance to disinfectants, average reductions of 2,6 ± 1,1 log CFU/mL were detected after 6 minutes of exposure to 200 ppm of chlorine; however, chlorine resistance varied among the strains. Prevalence of L. monocytogenes in RTE meat products sold at retail could be associated with handling practices within the stores; further studies are necessary to estimate the impact of these practices on the overall risk for consumers.

Intimate entanglements in the animal house: Caring for and about mice

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Friese
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Laboratory Mice ◽  
Intimate Knowledge ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Animal House

This article presents two vignettes from ethnographic research conducted in a ‘biological services unit’ or mouse house at a life sciences research institute in the UK. I focus on the ‘intimate knowledge’ two animal technicians demonstrated as crucial to care for the mice, where affective knowledge operated alongside scientific knowledge of animal welfare and administrative knowledge of keeping laboratory animals. I then show how caring for and about laboratory mice entailed caring about various other things, things that could help improve the lives of the mice. I thematize how the animal technicians ‘care about’ mice, using Astrid Schrader’s twin conceptions of compassion and ‘abyssal intimacy’. However, unlike Schrader and much of the literature focusing on the centrality of ‘sacrifice’ in scientific research involving laboratory animals, I contend that compassion is not centrally informed by death as the abyss here. Rather, the violent relatedness of being replaceable forms the abyss that makes compassion possible. It was the fact of caring about those with whom one becomes so intimately entangled, within the context of paid labour where one is replaceable, that formed the basis for compassion between animal technicians, mice and myself.

scholarly journals Does a Fish Need a Bicycle? Animals and Evolution in the Age of Biotechnology

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 484-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
SARAH CHAN ◽  
JOHN HARRIS
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Experimental Subjects

Animals, in the age of biotechnology, are the subjects of a myriad of scientific procedures, interventions, and modifications. They are created, altered, and experimented upon—often with highly beneficial outcomes for humans in terms of knowledge gained and applied, yet not without concern also for the effects upon the experimental subjects themselves: consideration of the use of animals in research remains an intensely debated topic. Concerns for animal welfare in scientific research have, however, been primarily directed at harm to and suffering of animal subjects and their prevention. Little attention has been paid to the benefits research might potentially produce for animals themselves and the interests that some animals may therefore have in the furtherance of particular avenues of science.

scholarly journals Relación entre las características de los transportes, con las características nutricionales de la carne porcina destinada a consumo humano en el Valle de Aburrá, 2017

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Uribe ◽  
Catalina María Arango ◽  
Juan Fernando Naranjo ◽  
Ángela Maria Segura ◽  
Santiago Henao
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Meat Products ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Nutritional Parameters ◽  
Probabilistic Sampling ◽  
Qualitative Variables ◽  
Meat Samples

Pork meat is considered a source of high nutritional value due to its high protein content, however, transport is a critical link to generate economic losses by producing alterations in animal welfare, which have an impact on nutritional parameters, decreasing the capacity of water retention, and generating protein losses. The objective of this study was to relate the characteristics of transport, with the nutritional characteristics of pork for human consumption in the Valle de Aburrá in 2017. Three slaughterhouses of Valle de Aburrá were visited with probabilistic sampling, stratified by plant and equal affixation, obtaining information from 338 animals. The nutritional parameters of the meat samples and sociodemographic variables, infrastructure, animal welfare and driving practices in the transporters were analyzed. Chi square tests were performed for dichotomous qualitative variables, logistic regression for qualitative polytomous variables and U Mann - Whitney for quantitative variables. An association was found between several of the parameters investigated with statistically significant p values (p = 0.000), where, having no permanent water supply for the animals increases the possibility of presenting nutritionally inadequate meats 46.55 times (IC 18.08 - 120.07). It concludes that factors such as lack of water supply to pigs, poor condition of the floors and separators, lack of training in transporters, lack of supervision of animals, lack of mechanical technical certification and average speed of 80 Km/Hr are associated with the generation of nutritionally inadequate meat products.

scholarly journals Food safety knowledge among cadets of Military Academy in Republic of Serbia

2021 ◽  
pp. 159-171
Author(s):  
Nada Smigic ◽  
Sladjana Jovanovic ◽  
Ilija Djekic ◽  
Srboljub Nikolic
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Meat Products ◽  
Food Contamination ◽  
Knowledge Score ◽  
Military Academy ◽  
Food Handling ◽  
Handling Practices ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Safety Knowledge

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of food safety knowledge among cadets of Military Academy in the Republic of Serbia. For that purpose, a structured, self-administrative questionnaire was designed and used to assess the level of food handling practices and food safety knowledge. In total, 120 cadets were involved in the study. For each participating cadet, the food handling practice score (FHPS) and food safety knowledge score (FSKS) was calculated by dividing the sum of correct answers by the total number of correct responses. Additionally, knowledge gaps were identified for each question. Our results indicated that on the average FHPS among Serbian cadets was 44.5%, while FSKS was 50.5%. Female cadets showed better scores compared to males, although this was not statistically significant. Better FHPS scores were determined among cadets living with parents (48.7%), compared to cadets living with roommates (43.6%, p?0.05), while an opposite was determined for FSKS. In total, 95.8% of cadets apply good practice of hand hygiene before preparing food, 90.8% of them knew that is not safe to consume food when the shelf-life is expired, and 89.2% knew that the opened sterilized milk should not be stored outside the refrigerator. Also, 91.7% of cadets knew that content of blown can is not safe for the consumption. Almost 64.2% of all cadets could successfully make association between meat and Trichinella, while merely 27.5% of them knew that Escherichia coli O157 is the most important pathogen for raw minced meat, and only 13.3% of cadets knew that Listeria monocytogenes is associated with ready-to-eat meat products. Finally, only 10% of cadets knew that Campylobacter is food-borne pathogen mostly associated with raw and undercooked chicken meat. Also, our cadets were not aware that color, smell or appearance of food would not give any indication of food contamination, as only 6.7% of cadets knew this. Results obtained in this study pointed out some food safety areas which need further improvement via educational program, but also via media and internet courses, material or short clips.

Vegetarian, vegan, activist, radical: Using latent profile analysis to examine different forms of support for animal welfare

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 836-857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma F. Thomas ◽  
Simon M. Bury ◽  
Winnifred R. Louis ◽  
Catherine E. Amiot ◽  
Pascal Molenberghs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Latent Profile Analysis ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
Meat Products ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Animal Products ◽  
Activist Group ◽  
The Social ◽  
Meat Animal ◽  
Latent Profile

There are many different ways that people can express their support for the animals that exist in factory farms. This study draws on insights from the social identity approach, and adopts novel methods (latent profile analysis [LPA]) to examine the qualitatively different subgroups or profiles that comprise broader community positions on this issue. North American participants ( N = 578) completed measures of the frequency with which they engaged in 18 different animal welfare actions. LPA identified 3 meaningful profiles: ambivalent omnivores ( n = 410; people who occasionally limited their consumption of meat/animal products), a lifestyle activist group ( n = 134; limited their consumption of animal/meat products and engaged in political actions), and a vegetarian radical group ( n = 34; strictly limited their consumption of animal/meat products and engaged in both political and radical actions). Membership of the 3 populations was predicted by different balances of social identities (supporter of animal welfare, vegan/vegetarian, solidarity with animals), and markers of politicization and/or radicalization. Results reveal the utility of adopting person-centred methods to study political engagement and extremism generally, and highlight heterogeneity in the ways that people respond to the harms perpetrated against animals.

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