IMPACT OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL REARING PROCESS ON ANIMAL WELFARE UNDER CLOSED-CYCLE PRODUCTION CONDITIONS

Abstract

The article addresses meat raw material quality management within the closed technological cycle of "rearing – pre-slaughter handling – primary processing". Existing approaches to assessing pre-slaughter stress often fail to account for individual animal adaptation, reducing carcass defect prediction accuracy. In the research conducted at the Kostanay region enterprises, the dynamics of key antemortem biomarkers – cortisol, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and creatine phosphokinase (CPK) – were studied in comparison with post-slaughter muscle tissue pH during autolysis. A direct correlation was established between antemortem stress intensity and the inhibition of post-slaughter pH decline in beef. The experimental site enabled comprehensive monitoring of beef cattle adaptive characteristics under open housing conditions during marketing and slaughter. It was experimentally proven that in critically stressed animals (Group III), against peak cortisol concentration (180.70±3.59 nmol/L), the 24-hour post-slaughter pH level fixes at an anomalously high 6.32±0.06, causing DFD defects in 24% of carcasses. Integrating rapid biochemical monitoring and pH measurement into quality control allows enterprises to promptly identify technological risks and minimize economic losses.