Slaughtering of Water Buffalo () with and without Stunning: A Focus on the Neurobiology of Pain, Hyperalgesia, and Sensitization.

The slaughter process in livestock is considered a stressor where the transport and handling of animals, as well as the selected stunning and bleeding methods, can cause acute pain, distress, and suffering. In water buffaloes, although stunning is known to be performed before bleeding to induce unconsciousness, no emphasis is made on the nociceptive events during this process. Particularly, current mechanical stunning methods applied to cattle are unsuitable for water buffaloes due to anatomical differences in the skull from other large ruminants.

Pre-Slaughter Stunning of Farmed Atlantic Halibut in CO-Saturated Seawater: Assessment of Unconsciousness by Electroencephalography (EEG).

As fish welfare becomes a growing concern, it is important to ensure humane treatment during slaughter. This study aimed to assess the onset of unconsciousness in Atlantic halibut immersed in CO-saturated seawater through electroencephalography (EEG). Of the 29 fish studied, 10 exhibited escape attempts, indicating aversion to CO-saturated water despite its oxygenation.

An extended theory of planned behavior to predict consumers' willingness to buy mobile slaughter unit meat.

The current study investigated the determinants of consumers' intention to purchase meat from mobile slaughter units (MSU). The theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the value belief norm theory (VBN) were used as conceptual lenses to guide this investigation. We conducted a survey among 329 respondents in the Netherlands who buy meat for themselves and/or for others.

Time to Loss of Consciousness and Its Relation to Behavior in Slaughter Pigs during Stunning with 80 or 95% Carbon Dioxide.

Exposure to CO2 at high concentration is a much debated stunning method in pigs. Pigs respond aversively to high concentrations of CO2, and there is uncertainty about what behaviors occur before and after loss of consciousness. The aim was to assess timing of unconsciousness in pigs during exposure to high concentrations of CO2 based on changes in electroencephalogram (EEG) activity and the relation with the behaviors sniffing, retreat and escape attempts, lateral head movements, jumping, muscular contractions, loss of posture, and gasping.

Minimally invasive technique based on ultraslow ultrafiltration to collect and store time profiles of analytes.

A device is described to collect and store continuously time profiles of analytes over periods of 24 h suitable to sample freely moving individuals (humans and animals). The device consists of a hollow fiber ultrafiltration probe, a long capillary and a nonmechanical unit (a disposable medical syringe) driven by vacuum to withdraw fluid. The principle is that at low rates (< or = 100 nL/min), sample fluid is collected through the ultrafiltration probe into the capillary.