Gascho Dominic, Stephan Roger, Bauer Clemens, Oesch Michelle Aimée, Richter Henning
Department of Forensic Medicine and Imaging, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Front Vet Sci. 2022 Jul 27;9:949198. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.949198. eCollection 2022.
The stunning of heavy cattle and water buffalo is an animal welfare problem, as conventional cartridge fired captive-bolt stunners are not suitable due to the thicker skull bones and the greater depth of penetration required to reach and damage the relevant brain regions for deep unconsciousness. This current animal welfare problem requires a suitable and feasible as well as commercially available and legally approved stunning device to ensure deep unconsciousness of these animals. In this study, the use of a newly developed bullet-shooting stunner, the , with two different types of hunting ammunition, namely .3 and .3 bullets, was evaluated on 22 heavy cattle (mean weight: 1062.27 kg, standard deviation: 124.09 kg). In ballistic experiments, the reached a mean energy density of 8.18 J/mm (mean error: 0.45 J/mm) for the .3 and 17.56 J/mm (mean error: 2.67 J/mm) for the .3 . In experiments, the use of the .3 resulted in overpenetration three times. The .3 bullets showed to be more advantageous, because on the one hand no overpenetration occurred and on the other hand the bullets fragmented into small parts after penetration into the skull. The fragments were scattered in the brain tissue, such as the thalamus and the brain stem, and thus there is a high probability to damage the brain regions relevant for deep unconsciousness. Based on the results of this study, the use of the in combination with the .3 bullet is found to be suitable for stunning heavy cattle.
使重型牛和水牛昏迷是一个动物福利问题，因为传统的枪击式固定栓昏迷器并不适用，这是由于它们的头骨较厚，需要更大的穿透深度才能到达并损伤相关脑区以实现深度昏迷。当前的这个动物福利问题需要一种合适、可行、可商购且经法律批准的昏迷装置，以确保这些动物深度昏迷。在本研究中，对22头重型牛（平均体重：1062.27千克，标准差：124.09千克）使用了一种新开发的子弹射击式昏迷器，并搭配两种不同类型的狩猎弹药，即.3和.3子弹进行评估。在弹道实验中，.3子弹的平均能量密度达到8.18焦耳/平方毫米（平均误差：0.45焦耳/平方毫米），.3子弹的平均能量密度达到17.56焦耳/平方毫米（平均误差：2.67焦耳/平方毫米）。在实验中，使用.3子弹出现了三次穿透过度的情况。.3子弹显示出更具优势，因为一方面没有发生穿透过度，另一方面子弹在穿透头骨后会破碎成小碎片。这些碎片散布在脑组织中，如丘脑和脑干，因此很有可能损伤与深度昏迷相关的脑区。基于本研究结果，发现将该昏迷器与.3子弹结合使用适合使重型牛昏迷。
