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Review
. 2020 Nov 25;10(12):2206.
doi: 10.3390/ani10122206.

Fasting Finisher Pigs before Slaughter Influences Pork Safety, Pork Quality and Animal Welfare

Bert Driessen  1   2 , Louis Freson  3   4 , Johan Buyse  2
Affiliations
Review

Fasting Finisher Pigs before Slaughter Influences Pork Safety, Pork Quality and Animal Welfare

Bert Driessen et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The final phase in pork production is the transport of finisher pigs to the slaughterhouse. Fasting is one of the parameters that influence the stress coping ability of the pigs during transport and lairage. When implemented correctly with attention to the local factors, pre-slaughter fasting can improve animal welfare, pathogen risk and carcass hygiene. The length of pre-slaughter feed withdrawal time is important to the success of the production practice. In practice, a fasting time before slaughter between 12 and 18 h enhances pork safety, pork quality, and animal welfare. This means that communication between producer and slaughterhouse is essential when planning the fasting and lairage times to avoid carcass and technological pork quality problems (such as pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) meat or dark, firm and dry (DFD) meat).

Keywords: animal welfare; fasting; pigs; slaughter.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
An overview of the different stages in the fasting process of finisher pigs. Because of the good distribution of pig slaughterhouses in Belgium, the mean transport time is 2 h. After transport, pigs are kept in lairage for 2 or 3 h before slaughter. If a total fasting period of 18 h is envisaged, the pigs should fast for 13 h on the farm. In addition, the metabolic adaptions in the fasting process of pigs are given.
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