A bruise is foremost site of an injury/contusion and can be defined as an ‘extravasations of blood beneath an intact epidermis due to injury. A bruise can also be defined as a special type of hematoma that has a focal point of discoloration caused by a blood collection that can be seen with the naked eye that occurred due to trauma to the body (Kline, 2018). Some methods commonly used to drive cattle, such as hitting or poking with a sharp or blunt object, result not only physical injuries and pain to the animal but also aversive emotional states and fear. Frequently, these practices coincide with shouting by the handlers, tail twisting, or shocking with electric prods which may negatively affect the welfare of the animals as well (Strappini et al., 2009).
Three core criteria must be met for a bruise to occur: the skin and tissues must be stretched or crushed with enough force to cause the small blood vessels to rupture, but not break the surface of the skin (the trauma must be caused by a blunt force so that the skin is not punctured as to cause a laceration), there must be sufficient blood pressure within the blood vessels to move the blood from the damaged vessels to the surrounding areas, the blood that leaves the blood vessels must be close to the surface of the skin to be visible with the naked eye for surface bruises (Edwards-CaLLaway & KLiNE, 2020).
Bruise is considered a constraint that limits the wholesomeness of Carcass Slaughtered es and is defined as the escape of blood from damaged blood vessels into the surrounding muscle tissues. Bruising is caused by a physical blow with a stick or stone, animal horn, metal projections, or animal fall and these activities do happen during handling, transporting and stunning. The damage caused by bruises has a great impact on the meat quality (Folitse et al., 2017). Carcass Slaughtered bruising is very common and its economic losses are of substantial problem in the meat value chain and have been estimated at several million dollars annually by several authors (Huertas et al., 2015). Bruises are also an important source of information about animal welfare. In cattle, the observation of bruising is used to determine whether animal welfare is sub-optimal. The shape of a bruise is often directly associated with the causative event. For instance, circular-shaped bruises, which are deep and small in extent, are most likely caused by horns; parallel red bruises with a tramline appearance are most likely caused by sticks and mottled bruises can be the result of the use of pointed sticks (Stephens, 2015).
The severity of a bruise is related to the force applied and the part of the body that was damaged. Bruises inflicted over the gluteus muscles of cows are deeper than those inflicted over the lumbo-dorsal fascia. Overall, the severity of a bruise depends greatly on the thickness and density of the affected tissue and its vascularity. The method of animal selling is commonly associated with the number of bruises and their distribution on the Carcass Slaughtered (Strappini et al., 2012).
Higher numbers of bruised Carcass Slaughtered es are reported for marketed animals than for animals transported directly from the farm. Marketed animals present more bruises on the hip, buttocks and rump loin than animals transported directly from farms to the slaughterhouse (Teixeira, 2020). These animals are exposed to extra loading and unloading procedures and to group mixing, which is likely associated with more bruises. A recent epidemiological study carried out in Chile has shown that animals from markets are at higher risk of being bruised than animals coming directly from farms (Romero et al., 2013).
Transportation stress is a complex stressor involving temperature fluctuations, withdrawal from food and water, mixing with unfamiliar animals, and motion. The stress response to road transport in cattle will vary depending on the type of animal and conditions during the journey. The distance that cattle are traveled to the abattoir and the occurrence of bruises seems to be positively correlated, the level of bruising increase with the distance traveled. Increasing time from the farm to the abattoir usually harms meat quality, with longer transport times increasing stress indicators such as cortisol, creatine kinase, and lactate (Romero et al., 2014). Research has shown that cattle transported for distances less than 400km are unlikely to have Carcass Slaughtered es with above normal pH values, while cattle transported for distances greater than 2000km or durations more than 24 hours are likely to show pH values above normal (Health & Welfare, 2011).
The least bruise which was found at the left forequarter and at butt indicated that there was less injury of cattle during closing the doors of weighing scale and stunning box at abattoirs. From a total of each slaughtered cattle, Arsi breed accounts for 54.54%, the Boran breed for 64.29%,and the Harar breed for 85.71% of normal Carcass slaughtered es. Rump and loin bruises might be associated with mounting on each other during their stay in the abattoir, injury during loading, collision of bulls with abattoirs facilities (scales, gates, crush) and body of the truck that were done at Elfora, Bishoftu, Ethiopia (Birhanu et al., 2019). However, no research has been conducted on prevalence and associated risk factors of bruise in the bovine Carcass Slaughtered in Jimma municipal abattoir before. Therefore, the objectives of these studies are To identify the prevalence and associated risk factors of bruise in the bovine Carcass Slaughtered in Jimma municipal abattoir.