Abstract
All food animals will experience some level of stress during their lives. Stress reduces the fitness of an animal, which can be expressed through failure to achieve production performance standards or targets, or more drastically, through injury, disease and death. Stress in food animals can also have detrimental effects on the quality and safety of food products. However, knowledge of food animals’ stress and its effect on the quality and safety of food products is scanty. The aim of this review article is to examine the current knowledge on the potential effects of stress in food animals on food quality and safety risk. Stress in food animals can have detrimental effects on the quality of food products. The effect includes; decline in processing properties, functional quality, eating quality and shelf life. Therefore, it is very automatic to cause huge financial loss to the food industry. Furthermore, stress in food animals have a significant deleterious effect on food safety through different potential mechanisms affecting the susceptibility of food animals to infections as well as the carriage and shedding of foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and Campylobacter. Since stress in life is unavoidable, we can never expect to develop ideal conditions that will always keep our animals stress free. Therefore, changes in management practices to promote animal well-being and to minimize stress can reduce losses in product yield and quality, as well as food safety risks to consumers. Keywords: Food animals; food quality; food safety; stress DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/12-1-02 Publication date: January 31 st 2022
Highlights
Meeting consumer concerns about food quality and safety have been identified as key points for future livestock production
Stress reduces the fitness of an animal, which can be expressed through failure to achieve production performance standards or targets (Mitlohner et al, 2001; Collier et al, 2006; Estevez, 2007; White et al, 2008), or more drastically, through disease and death (Vecerek et al, 2006; Duff and Galyean, 2007; Fitzgerald et al, 2009)
The handling, loading, transporting, and unloading of animals can have substantial detrimental effects on their well-being by causing stress. During this process, animals can be exposed to a range of challenging stimuli, including handling and increased human contact, transport, novel/unfamiliar environments, food and water deprivation, changes in social structure, and changes in climatic conditions. These challenges perturb the homeostasis of the animals, and an adaptive response is activated in an attempt to restore balance (Rostango, 2010)
Summary
Meeting consumer concerns about food quality and safety have been identified as key points for future livestock production. The handling, loading, transporting, and unloading of animals can have substantial detrimental effects on their well-being by causing stress During this process, animals can be exposed to a range of challenging stimuli, including handling and increased human contact, transport (vibration, movement, and jolting), novel/unfamiliar environments, food and water deprivation, changes in social structure (through separation and mixing during transport and/or at the final destination), and changes in climatic conditions (i.e., heat and cold). These challenges perturb the homeostasis of the animals, and an adaptive response is activated in an attempt to restore balance (Rostango, 2010)
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