Resumen de Efecto del enriquecimiento ambiental sobre el bienestar, la producción y la calidad de la carne de corderos de cebaderos: Rampas de alimentación
A. Aguayo Ulloa, Genaro C. Miranda-de la Lama, M. Pascual-Alonso, J.L. Olleta, M. Villarroel, Gustavo Adolfo María Levrino
The aim was to analyze the effect of enriched housing during the finishing phase of fattening on physiological welfare indicators, production and meat quality traits in lambs. 60 Rasa Aragonesa lambs (17.2±0.2 kg), were divided into 2 treatments and housed indoors for 5 weeks in 6 pens (0.45m2/lamb, 10 lambs/each, 3 replicates/treatment). The control group (CG) was a barren environment similar than intensive conditions, without straw or any additional item. The enriched group (EG) contained multiple items: straw as forage and bedding, platform with ramps to get the feed hopper and a small play ramp. Ad libitum concentrate feed consumption was recorded and lambs were weighted twice to estimate ADG. Blood samples were taken before slaughter. Carcass and instrumental meat quality were measured. EG lambs perform better and increase their adaptation ability to novel environment than CG lambs. EG group had better productive performance and meat quality. Our study confirms the importance of housing enrichment as critical aspect to improve animal welfare and suggest that by this way is possible to improve the meat quality.
