Effective Removal of Manure/Mud Balls from Cattle Hides using Thioglycolate Salt Containing Formulations

Abstract

The effective removal of hardened manure/mud balls from cattle hides remains a challenge for the livestock industry. Hardened manure/mud balls must be removed to minimize the risk of microbial meat contamination and hide quality deterioration. To overcome this challenge, we developed thioglycolic acid and its sodium, potassium and ammonium salts containing formulations. In this study, the developed four formulations were compared based on their efficacy in removing adobe type mud/manure balls from the hides in short time. Hide pieces containing hardened manure/mud balls were soaked in the formulations for 5 minutes followed by gentle brushing to remove the debris. The firmly attached mud/manure balls were removed completely from the hide pieces soaked in sodium, potassium and ammonium thioglycolate containing formulations. However, thioglycolic acid containing formulation did not show that much efficacy and the debris remained attached in the hide pieces soaked in water which was used as a control. Moreover, naturally onboard aerobic bacteria count was significantly reduced along with the mud/manure balls removal from hide pieces. After treatment, the hide pieces were processed into crust shoe leather for quality check analysis including mechanical properties, leather surface analysis and general appearance. The crust leathers made from hide pieces treated with the formulation exhibited similar quality to that made from the control. The implementation of this inventive formulations in slaughterhouses or leather industry will drastically reduce the time consuming and labor-intensive operations currently employed to remove firmly attached debris from cattle hide surface.