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Original Research
3.
Meat inspection and animal welfare practices:
Evidences from north-western Himalayan region, India - Devesh Thakur, R K Ravikumar, Pranav Kumar, Atul
Gupta, Alok Sharma, Shivani Katoch, Vinod Kumar Bodh
Vet World. 2012; 5(12): 718-722
doi:
10.5455/vetworld.2012.7
18-722
Abstract
Aim:
The present study was conducted to assess the animal
welfare measures for safe and wholesome meat
production as well to understand different roles
performed by delegated institutions in ensuring
quality meat production.
Materials and Methods:
Semi-structured interview schedule was administered
to 40 butchers and 40 veterinary officers of state
department of animal husbandry, Himachal Pradesh.
Result: It was found that open slaughtering was
common (87.50%), animals did not have sufficient
water provisions and often the lairage premises were
devoid of adequate light thereby making ante-mortem
and post mortem inspection difficult. Off feeding,
offering potable water to animals before
slaughtering was also less followed practice.
Therefore, many a times the welfare of animals was
not taken into consideration. Regular meat
inspection was performed as an additional duty, by
few (22.50%) veterinarians only. It was found that
veterinarian's role was restricted to meat
inspection only. The issue of license for
slaughtering activities was the responsibility of
district administration/municipal bodies.
Conclusion: The study recommends appropriate
legislations for greater role of veterinarians so as
to promote quality meat hygienic practices thereby
promoting animal and human welfare.
Keywords:
awareness, Himachal Pradesh, meat inspection
measures, meat inspection trainings, veterinarian
