Effect of quarantine on post mortem performances of Charolaise young bulls

Biosecurity measures are important to reduce the spread of diseases. This in turn results in a reduction of antimicrobial consumption and limits the phenomenon of antimicrobial resistance. Little is known about the role of the quarantine on post mortem performances and antimicrobial use in beef cattle. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of quarantine on post mortem traits of beef bulls. Data on 575 Charolaise young bulls were collected from July 2018 to March 2020 in 2 specialised Italian fattening farms. Within each farm, animals were split into two groups: one followed the standard period of the fattening farm (NO-QUA group) and the other followed a 30-day period of quarantine before moving to the standard fattening pens (QUA group). Live weight at slaughter and post mortem performances, namely carcass weight, SEUROP category, colour indexes (L*, a*, b*) and pH of M. gracilis were collected. Also, information on the number of treatments per animal and reasons for treating were recorded. A general linear model was used to analyse the aforementioned traits. The model included the fixed effects of farm, group (QUA and NO-QUA), season, body weight at the arrival to the fattening farm and the interaction between group and season. Results showed that live weight at slaughter was greater for QUA than NO-QUA animals (719.8 vs 710.8 kg; P<0.05), whereas carcass weight (441.2 vs 438.8 kg) and colour were not significantly affected by quarantine. NO-QUA animals had higher pH (P<0.01) and reached inferior SEUROP category than QUA animals. Also, NOQUA animals were much more treated than QUA animals (139 vs 56) for respiratory diseases. Overall, the strategy of quarantine improved both post mortem performances and meat quality traits of Charolaise beef bulls.