Dressing of Animals

Generally sheep, goat, cattle, buffalo, pig and poultry are slaughtered in India. In our country, slaughter of buffalo is much prevalent as compared to cattle. Sheep and goats have no religious taboos compared to cattle and pigs. Poultry meat is acceptable to many due to lower price compared to other meats and lesser chances of adulteration with other meat. Beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, chevon are known as red meat whereas chicken i.e., poultry meat is known as white meat. In India, Halal method for Muslim and Jhatka method for Sikh are more prevalent than other method of slaughter.

You have already studied about stunning and bleeding of different meat animals in unit-9. So we will learn here the steps involved in dressing of these animals.

Dressing of Cattle/Buffalo

Dressing of cattle and buffalo after stunning and bleeding, involves following steps:

Dehiding: Dehiding is the removal of hide or skin. At first the head is flayed by making an incision with knife from the poll to the muzzle. From the base of the neck, another incision is made to the middle of lower jaw. After reflecting the hide over head, atlanto-occipital joint is cut to separate the head. Then an incision is made from the mid ventral line of the base of the neck to the brisket, belly and base of the tail. The medial aspect of the fore limbs is incised from the knee joint to the mid ventral incision. Similarly, medial aspect of hind limb is also incised. The shanks are removed at flat joint. Then the hide/skin over the fore limb and hind limbs is removed and followed by the skin/hide of belly, chest and neck. Practically, flaying of back or butt region is difficult because the skin is highly adherent to underlying tissues in this area. The tail is removed from the base of the tail.

Evisceration: Evisceration is process of removal of visceral organs. A circumcision is made around the anus by a sharp knife and the attachments of large intestine are removed. This helps in easy pulling of intestines from the ventral aspect. The distal end of the anus is tied with a small rubber band to prevent the contamination of the carcass by intestinal contents. A sharp knife is used to make mid ventral incision from the mid point of pubic symphysis to the level of sternum. After exposing the abdominal cavity, o mental and mesenteric fats are removed and then abdominal contents are removed. Care should be taken not to puncture the visceral organs accidentally. The attachments of diaphragm to liver are cut to separate the liver without puncturing the gall-bladder. Then thoracic cavity is opened by a mid ventral incision from the sternum to midpoint of neck. Diaphragm and the thoracic organs are removed. In case of cattle and buffalo carcass, laryhx, trachea, lungs, heart and liver are collectively known as 'pluck'. All these are placed for post-mortem examination along with the carcass. You will study the post-mortem examination in detail in unit-12.

Splitting: The beef(cattle) and buffalo carcasses are split vertically & from the pelvis up to the neck by sawing or cleaving. This splitting of carcass makes two halves (right and left). The saw or cleavers should be sterilized properly before use.

Carcass washing: Carcass is washed to remove soil, blood, stains etc. Only potable water should be used for carcass washing. Carcass may be washed before or after splitting. Surface of the carcass and thoracic and abdominal cavity are washed by spraying of potable water. Then the carcass should be dried as far as possible to avoid the bacterial growth.

Sometimes, by quartering, each side(left or right half) is divided into fore quarter and hind quarter. After postmortem examination of the carcass and offals, the carcass is placed in a chilling room for proper setting of the carcass and further storage. You will learn about chilling and freezing storage in next course.

Slaughter of cattle

Dressing of Sheep/Goat 

You have studied the stunning and bleeding of sheep and goat in previous unit. After bleeding, the carcass is dressed in the following way:

Decapitation: It is the removal of the head. Head is separated with skin at atlanto- occipital joint.

Removal of legs: The fore legs are disjointed at the knee joint.

Skinning/flaying: Skinning or flaying is started by making an elliptical incision around the hock joint on either side of hind legs. Skin is reflected on both sides by twisting and thumbing and this process is called fisting. Flaying is continued in this manner up to the level of sternum and finally the whole skin is removed by pulling out in a single flap. Skin is also removed by putting air in between the skin and underlying tissue.

Evisceration: For removal of visceral organs, same process is followed as in case of cattle but the composition of 'pluck' is slightly different in case of sheep/goat. Here, the 'pluck' includes larynx, trachea, heart, liver, lungs and spleen. Paunch i.e., stomach is first removed, then 'pluck' is removed. In sheep and goat, the kidneys remain attached to the carcass until the carcass is split down the back bone. Generally, the sheep and goat carcasses are not split and sold entire. Dressed carcass and offals are placed for postmortem inspection.

Carcass washing: Sheep and goat carcasses should be washed by spraying Dressing Techniques and Carcass Yield potable water on the surface of the carcass and on the thorasic and abdominal cavity .

Slaughter of Goat

Dressing of Pig 

Dressing of pig is slightly different from cattle or sheep because the skin of the pig is not removed during dressing. We have discussed the stunning and bleeding of pig in the previous unit of this course. Steps involved in the dressing, are discussed below: 

Scalding: As the skin of the pig is consumed with the meat, skinning or flaying is not done. Instead of that the carcass is exposed to hot water treatment which is known as scalding. Scalding is done to loosen the attachment of hair/bristles by partial cooking of hair follicles.Scalding temperature for pig is about 62-64 C. 

Dehairing: Hairs or bristles of the pig can he removed either by dehairing machine i.e., mechanical scrapper or manually. Dehairing should be done in the direction of the hair follicles. When it is done manually, a blunt knife is used for this purpose. All the bristles and fine hairs may not be removed by scrapping. Then the skin surface is exposed to blow lamp which chars the remaining bristles and hairs. This process is called as singeing. Then the charred bristles and hairs are removed by shaving with a fine knife. 

Rinsing: The entire carcass is rinsed thoroughly with cold potable water to give the carcass a clear appearance. 

Evisceration: The procedure is almost same as followed in case of cattle. A sharp and Meat Inspection end knife is used to make incision through subcutaneous fat from mid point of pubic symphysis to midpoint of neck. A knife is introduced through the opening of the pelvic cavity towards abdominal cavity and all the pelvic and abdominal organs are pulled out except the kidneys. To open the thoracic cavity, sternal cartilage is cut by a cutting knife. Then diaphragm along with other thoracic organs is removed. The carcass and the organs are then placed for postmortem examination. 

Final washing: Clean, cold and potable water is used to remove blood and dirt adhering to the carcass. 

The carcass is then kept in the chilling room for proper setting. Sometimes the carcass is divided into  two equal halves.

slaughter of pig