Characterization of sheep slaughterhouses for barbacoa production in a municipality in the Central Mexican Plateau

Abstract

Ensuring the quality and safety of meat from slaughter animals is a matter of global concern. Among the factors that must be taken care of are the activities that generate stress to the animal during antemortem handling (transport, rest, and stunning), postmortem carcass handling (aging and storage), and hygiene practices in facilities and staff. This work aimed to characterize sheep slaughter units within the municipality of Capulhuac de Mirafuentes, State of Mexico, based on current Mexican regulations. For this, a principal component (PC) analysis was carried out, highlighting that those that represented the highest variability in the slaughter centers were the price of the carcasses and their products, place of marketing, slaughter volume, sex of the animal, and safety of the carcasses, which represented 50.4 % of the explained variance. A cluster analysis was also carried out, which represented the integration of four groups of slaughter descriptors (P<0.05). As a result, it was found that 65 % of animals are slaughtered in commercial premises and houses that do not comply with the technification described in the regulations; they also present deficient antemortem and postmortem handling of animals; it was also observed that 98.3 % of the establishments use a slaughter method called “descabellado” (pithing), not reported in NOM-033SAG/ZOO/2014, coupled with the lack of knowledge of the staff on animal welfare issues. This affects the quality and safety of meat and puts consumers’ health at risk.