Meat quality assessment in Rabbits subjected to ritual slaughter and gas stun killing

Abstract

Whereas animal welfare regulatory bodies would prefer that animals be rendered unconscious before exsanguination, followers of Islam and Judaism prefer that animals be exsanguinated while still alive. Moreover, meat processors prefer slaughter methods that yield the best quality meat. This has created a lot of debate among religious leaders, animal welfare officials and meat industrialists. This paper evaluates meat quality of rabbits killed by gas before exsanguination and those subjected to ritual slaughter. Pre-rigor, ritual slaughter (RS) resulted in significantly lower pH than gas stun-killing. However, post rigor, the pH values for both methods were not significantly different. RS had lower cooking loss than GK (p<0.05). On day 1, GK exhibited higher shear force than RS (p<0.05). However, on day 7, the shear force exhibited by both methods was not significantly different. The values for drip loss, redness and glycogen content were not significantly different for both RS and GK. Generally, the quality of meat from RS was comparable to that from GK. However, the procedure needs to be carefully carried out in order to avoid compromising the welfare of animals.