The Role of Quarantine on Post-Mortem Performances of Charolaise Young Bulls

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Despite the positive role of biosecurity measures on the health and productivity of livestock animals, such measures are still poorly implemented in the beef sector due to the high investments that farmers have to face and a lack of empirical information on their effectiveness, specifically with regards to the long-term effects on animal performance and meat quality. Hence, with this short communication we aimed to evaluate the effect of quarantine on post-mortem traits of young beef bulls. Overall, post-mortem performances were positively affected by the quarantine, likely due to a reduced risk of exposure to pathogens that made the animals less susceptible to diseases such as the bovine respiratory disease. In fact, a significant decrease of antimicrobial (AM) use was reported. Implementing the quarantine on-farm can result in an increase of farm profit due to extra sale weight, an amelioration of carcass quality, and an additional saving of AM costs. Additionally, the reduction of AM use is an advantage for both human and animal health given its likely contribution to the development of antimicrobial resistance. ABSTRACT: Biosecurity is essential to prevent the spread of diseases in livestock animals such as the bovine respiratory disease which can lead to negative effects on growth performance, and carcass and meat quality, as well as to an increase of antimicrobial use. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the quarantine on post-mortem performances (hot carcass weight, dressing percentage, pH 60 min after slaughtering, carcass SEUROP conformation, and fat cover) of 576 Charolaise young bulls imported from France and fattened in specialized Italian farms. Approximately half of the animals followed a standard fattening procedure without initial quarantine upon arrival to Italy (NO-QUA) and the other half underwent a 30-day period of quarantine (QUA) since their arrival to the farm. Post-mortem performances and parenteral administration of antimicrobial use were recorded. NO-QUA animals had lower average daily gain and slaughter weight but scored higher for carcass SEUROP evaluation and pH than QUA animals (p < 0.05). NO-QUA received more than double the number of parenteral antimicrobial treatments than QUA animals for respiratory diseases (139 vs. 56). Overall, quarantine applied on-farm contributes to improve post-mortem performances while reducing antimicrobial use in beef production.