THE FEASIBILITY OF USING VOCALIZATION SCORING AS AN INDICATOR OF POORWELFARE DURING CATTLE SLAUGHTER

Vocalizations of cattle in six commercial slaughter plants were tabula ted during handling in the forcing pen stunning box and single file ra ce. Each animal was scored as being either a vocalizer or nonvocalizer . Vocalizations that occurred in the lairage pens were not counted. A total of 1125 animals were observed during normal operations and 112 c attle vocalized. All vocalizations, with the exception of two, occurre d immediately after a stressful event such as electric prodding, slipp ing on the stunning box floor, missed captive bolt stuns, or excessive pressure exerted on the animal's body by a restraining device powered by pneumatic cylinders. Electric prodding was associated with vocaliz ation in 72 animals. In four plants, cattle were moved quietly at a wa lk in small groups, and electric prods were used only on cattle that r efused to move. The percentages of cattle that vocalized in the stunni ng box, single file race and forcing pen in these four plants were 1.1 %, 2.6%, 6.6% and 7.5%. Vocalizations were associated with slipping on the stunning box: floor, excessive pressure from a powered tailgate a nd electric prodding when an animal balked because it saw a moving per son up ahead. In two other plants, 90% and 76% of the cattle were prod ded with an electric prod. When this excessive prod usage was stopped, vocalizations dropped from 32% to 12% of the cattle in the first plan t, and from 12% to 3% in the second plant. The remaining vocalizations were due to missed stuns and excessive pressure from a restraining de vice. Vocalization scoring could be used as a simple method for detect ing welfare problems that need to be corrected. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scie nce B.V.