A study on the risk factors associated with blood splash in slaughtered cattle

This study was conducted to analyse risk factors which can influence on blood splash in slaughtered cattle in D slaughterhouse located in Gyeonggi province in 2008. A total of 13,056 cattle were studied by several risk factors such as species, gender, body weight, meat grade, weather (temperature), transport distance, lairaging time, moving time, mixing cattle from different sources. As the result of analysis, the total mean of blood splash was 0.70% and the rate was highest (0.94%) in castrated Hanwoo. The heavier body weight, the higher blood splash rate. The farms which have had more than one experience of blood splash tend to have high grade in meat quality. As a weather factor, the rate in summer season was lower than in winter season. It increased as transport distance getting longer and decreased when the lairaging time was 2~5 hours. We could know many risk factors strongly related with the occurrence of blood splash from this study.