Livestock Drinking Water Supply Facilities in the Holding Area for Abattoirs in Japan

OKUNO Hisashi, KASHIMA Satoru, YAMAZAWA Shinji, SAITOU Keigo

doi:10.12935/jvma.66.875

We surveyed the actual conditions of drinking water facilities in livestock holding areas, as we felt livestock should be supplied with drinking water. We sent questionnaires to 116 meat inspection centers from September 2010 to January 2011, and collected answers and comments from 159 slaughterhouses. Of the 14 abattoirs in Hokkaido, livestock were not supplied with drinking water in the holding area at all. Of the 145 abattoirs outside of Hokkaido, 62 out of the 115 (53.9%) that slaughtered bovines had facilities and supplied drinking water. This rate rose to 78.8% at 33 larger abattoirs that slaughtered more than 50 bovines per day. However, only 19 out of the 129 abattoirs that slaughtered swine (14.7%) had these facilities. Many respondents said that swine were able to drink water from showers and hoses in the holding area, but we did not consider these to be drinking water facilities. Both in and outside of Hokkaido, 25 abattoirs received guidance from municipal meat inspection centers on supplying drinking water for livestock, but 83 did not receive instruction. The most important reason why they did not receive guidance was that Japanese legislation on abattoirs does not regulate drinking water for livestock. This survey also revealed many opinions that the livestock environment in abattoirs should be improved from the viewpoint of animal welfare.

Livestock Drinking Water Supply Facilities in the Holding Area for Abattoirs in Japan

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