52a Reunião Anual da Sociedade Brasileira de
Zootecnia
Zootecnia: Otimizando Recursos e Potencialidades
Belo Horizonte – MG, 19 a 23 de Julho de 2015
Influence of Environmental Temperature (Et) and Relative Humidity (Rh) about Heart Rate (Hr) of
Crossbreed Lamb During the Pre slaughter Phase1
Vinícius de Sena Sales Viana2, José Freire Costa Neto3, Luanda Rêgo de Lima4, Luan Mariano Duarte5, Maria
Simone Mendes Peixoto6, Daniel Gurgel Pinheiro7 e José Antonio Delfino Barbosa Filho8
1
Parte da dissertação de mestrado da terceira autora, financiada pela CAPES
Graduando em Zootecnia pela Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC, Fortaleza-Ceará, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]
3
Graduando em Zootecnia pela Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC, Fortaleza-Ceará, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]
4
Doutoranda em Engenharia Agrícola pela Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC, Fortaleza-Ceará, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]
5
Graduando em Zootecnia pela Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC, Fortaleza-Ceará, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]
6
Graduada em Zootecnia pela Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC, Fortaleza-Ceará, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]
7
Mestre em Engenharia Agrícola pela Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC, Fortaleza-Ceará, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]
8
Professor Adjunto do Departamento de Engenharia Agrícola pela Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC, Fortaleza-Ceará, Brasil. E-mail:
[email protected]
2
Resumo: Ovinos são animais capazes de regular a temperatura corporal mesmo diante de oscilações térmicas,
sendo considerados homeotérmicos. O presente trabalho acompanhou o transporte de cordeiros mestiços das raças
Santa Inês e Morada Nova a fim de avaliar a influência da temperatura ambiental (Ta) e da umidade relativa do ar
(UR) na Frequência Cardiaca (Fc) dos animais. Dois transportes foram acompanhados, de Quixadá até um
abatedouro localizado em Maracanaú. Em cada transporte foram utilizados dez animais para as coleta de Fc.
Durante a etapa correspondente ao transporte foram coletados dados de Ta e UR. Foram avaliadas três fases préabate: embarque, transporte e desembarque. As médias da temperatura do ar (Ta) diferiram significativamente em
todas as fases, com valores crescentes, chegando ao valor máximo de 33,17°C ± 0,29 na fase de desembarque,
igualmente ocorrei com as medias da umidade relativa do ar, porém apresentou sua maior média, 83,90% ± 0,92, na
fase de embarque. Já a média da frequência cardíaca dos ovinos não diferiu estatisticamente entre as fases de
embarque e desembarque, contudo, houve diferença significativa entre as fases embarque e transporte, transporte e
desembarque. Concluiu-se que no início do transporte os animais em situação de estresse, apresentando batimentos
cardíacos mais elevados, porém devido à longa viagem, no momento do desembarque, os animais apresentaram
uma frequência cardíaca menor, demostrando adaptação à situação.
Palavras–chave: abate, ambiência, ovinocultura
Abstract: Ovine are animals capable to regulate their own body temperature even when they face to thermic
fluctuations. Therefore, we consider them homoeothermic animals. This publication followed the transport of
crossbreed lambs that were Santa Ines and Morada Nova breed with the purpose of to evaluate the influence of
environmental temperature (Et) and relative humidity of the air (Rh) about heart rate (Hr) of those animals. We
followed two different transports that were done between Quixada city and a slaughterhouse located in Maracanau.
In each transport was chosen ten animals to take data of cardiac frequency. During the transport part was taken data
of environmental temperature and relative humidity. We evaluate three different parts of pre slaughter: transport,
transport and unloading. The environmental temperature (Ta) average differs significantly in all phases, which are:
transport, transport and unloading. The average Ta reached increasing values at each stage, reaching its maximum
value 33.17 ° X ± 0.29 in the unloading phase. The average of heart rate was not significantly different between the
phases of loading and unloading, however, there were significant differences between phases loading and transport,
transport and unloading. It was concluded that at the beginning of transport there were animals under stress, with
higher heart rate, but because of the long journey, on unloading, the animals showed a lower heart rate, showing
adaptation to the situation.
Keywords: ambience, sheep industry, slaughter
Introduction
Ovine, such as others mammals and birds, are homoeothermic animals. They are animals capable to
control narrowly the body temperature, but it is efficient just when the environmental temperature is not under the
lower limit or above of the upper limit. It shows the importance to maintain the place of the animals with
environmental temperature as closer as we can to the animals comfort conditions. The pre slaughter process involve
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52a Reunião Anual da Sociedade Brasileira de
Zootecnia
Zootecnia: Otimizando Recursos e Potencialidades
Belo Horizonte – MG, 19 a 23 de Julho de 2015
different stressful points such as psychological reflexes, physical, environmental and metabolic. Most of factors are
dependent of the directly human intervention. For example, removal of the stalls, put together different batches of
animals, huge number of animals at the same place, loading and transport, control of microenvironment during the
transport, be expose to a new environment, commercial decisions, fasting period and quality of unloading after
transport, wait moment and forced interaction with humans. The ability of animals to adapt to a particular
environment depends on a set of adjustments to the body that in stressful environmental conditions can affect the
physiological parameters. Including heart rate, which in turn, is widely used as a display of animal welfare. In the
present publication aimed to evaluate the influence of temperature and moisture during shipment, transport and
unloading, during the pre-slaughter of these animals.
Material and Methods
The experiment was conducted at Quixada city and in a slaughterhouse located at Maracanau city. We
monitored two different transport that happened between November 2013 and January 2014. In each transport was
used 50 ovine male crossbreed (Santa Ines/MoradaNova) no castrated, with 5 to 6 months of age. These animals
had 24h fasting. Of the 50 lambs, was chosen a representative sample of 10 animals that was selected by weight,
color of the skin and age. Each animal was marked with different colored tapes for identification. They were
coupled mini-stations and meteorological data logger of onset® brand, U23-001 HOBO Pro v2 model positioned at
the height of the withers of the animals, in order to determine the condition of thermal comfort during the phase of
pre slaughter. To do that, those equipment were previously programed to register temperature of the air and relative
humidity of the air each 10 minutes during all the way to slaughterhouse. Measurement of heart rate was obtained
with the use of a stethoscope, brand Rappaport Premium positioned between the third and fourth intercostal space,
around the costochondral joint, which were counted the heartbeats for 15 seconds; after that we multiplied by four
to obtain the heart rate in beats per minute. Samplings of heart rate were made in three different moments. The first
one was during a wait moment in a farm located at countryside of Quixada city. The second one was at downtown
Quixada that is about 20km away from the farm and last one was at the slaughterhouse located in Maracanau city
that is 170 km away from Quixada city. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed by the method of least
squares for non-balanced data (Silva, 1993), where the average of all estimated variables were compared by the
Tukey-Kramer test (p <0.05) and all analyzes were performed using SAS software Statistical Analysis System
(SAS Institute, 2001)
Results and Discussion
As shown in Table 1, the average environmental temperature (Ta) differed significantly in all phases, which
are: transport, transport and unloading. The average Ta reached increasing values at each stage, reaching its
maximum value 33.17 ° X ± 0.29 in the unloading phase. The same happened with the average relative humidity,
however the opposite to what happened to Ta, the Hr presented its highest average, 83.90% ± 0.92 in the loading
phase.
Table 1. Averages and standard deviations of the environmental temperature (Et) and Relative Humidity (RH)
during transportation in pre-slaughter stages of lambs.
Variable
Nº
Phase
Average ± DP
Minimum
Maximum
Pr > F
Et (˚C)
20
Rh (%)
20
Loading
Transport
Unloading
Loading
Transport
Unloading
23,60 ± 0,27a
26,55 ± 0,27b
33,17 ± 0,29c
83,90 ± 0,92a
75,95 ± 0,92b
44,94 ± 0,97c
23,0
25,0
31,5
76,0
69,5
41,5
25,5
29,0
35,0
89,5
79,5
50,5
< 0,0001
< 0,0001
< 0,0001
< 0,0001
< 0,0001
< 0,0001
Average followed by different lowercase later at the same column differ significantly by Tukey test (p < 5%).
As can be seen in Table 2, the average heart rate of the sheep did not differ statistically between the phases
of loading and unloading, however, significant differences between phases loading and transport, transport and
unloading.
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52a Reunião Anual da Sociedade Brasileira de
Zootecnia
Zootecnia: Otimizando Recursos e Potencialidades
Belo Horizonte – MG, 19 a 23 de Julho de 2015
Table 2. Average and standard deviation of the heart rate (Hr) of lambs during the pre-slaughter stages.
Phase of
Nº of animals
Hr
Average ± DP
pre-Slaughter
(bat.min-1)
Loading
20
115,4±2,67b
23,60 ± 0,27a
a
Transport
20
123±2,67
26,55 ± 0,27b
b
Unloading
20
110,9±2,89
33,17 ± 0,29c
Average followed by different lowercase later at the same column differ significantly by Tukey test (p < 5%).
The average Hr was lower during the unloading, at the same time that the average Ta achieved greater value.
Eustáquio Filho et al. (2011), found that a reduction in heart rate in sheep kept at 40 ° C temperature and reported
that this may be due to a greater flow of blood in the arteries to reach the most distal layers of the epidermis in order
to increase the heat dissipation to the environment, causing change in blood pressure and consequent reduction of
the heart rate. Kadzere et al. (2002) stated that the reduced heart rate is more typical in animals that are in thermical
stress and is associated with reduced rate of heat production in response to higher ambient temperatures.
The highest average Hr was reached during transport, which was 123 beats per minute. A heart rate adjusts
to attend the demand of every emotional situation. High levels of heart rate are produced during excessive physical
activity in the defense and alarm reactions (Cunningham, 2006) or increased body temperature (Guyton E HALL,
2006). The increase of Hr at transport part might have been triggered as an alarm reaction, since this is a new
stressful situation for the animal. Dalla Costa et al. (2006) evaluated the heart rate of 196 adult females in the period
before, during and after the transport and found that the heart rate increased in transport (104.9 bpm) and decreased
in the rest (91.04 bpm). In this experiment happened the same as observed by Dalla Costa et al. (2006), where Hr
was higher in transport (123.00 bpm) and reduced the unloading (110.87 bpm). This could be probably because of
animals during transport are accommodated in small space in the truck, preventing them from resting or by the
physical discomfort of staying struggling each other.
Conclusions
During the transport, the heart rate increased and decreased during the unloading. The result that was found,
suggest that at the beginning of the transport those animals were being exposed to a new situation and a bad method
of pre-slaughter that led them to have higher heart rates. In other hand because of the long journey and high
temperature in the moment of unloading, those animals showed a lower heart rate. It can be because of the animal
adaptation to this situation.
References
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