Rabkin Simon W
Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of British Columbia, 9th Floor, 2775 Laurel Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V5Z 1M9.
Can Vet J. 2025 May;66(5):564-567.
The impact of sectioning the jugular veins in the ritual slaughter of animals for food consumption has not been well-characterized. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the consequences of severing the jugular veins. In animal slaughter, when the jugular vein is transected, air travels antegrade into the right ventricle due to the powerful suction effect of right ventricular diastolic function and retrograde into the cerebral circulation, due to the natural buoyancy of the air bubbles. Air sucked into the heart induces hypotension because it creates an 'air lock' in the heart and elicits reflexes in the pulmonary arteries. Air exceeding the pulmonary filtration threshold travels to the left ventricle where ejection creates emboli leading to systemic organ ischemia. Air emboli travelling to the brain through the vertebral artery produce cerebral ischemia, which will further accelerate the brain damage produced by the severed carotid arteries. Air embolism is a well-documented cause of death in animals as well as humans, and the larger the volume of air entering the circulation the faster death will ensue. Veterinarians should consider air embolism as another pathway in ritual slaughter that can lead to rapid animal death.
在用于食用的动物宗教仪式屠宰中，切断颈静脉的影响尚未得到充分描述。本综述的目的是评估切断颈静脉的后果。在动物屠宰过程中，当颈静脉被横断时，由于右心室舒张功能的强大抽吸作用，空气顺行进入右心室，又由于气泡的自然浮力，空气逆行进入脑循环。吸入心脏的空气会导致低血压，因为它在心脏中形成“气锁”并引发肺动脉反射。超过肺过滤阈值的空气进入左心室，在左心室射出时形成栓子，导致全身器官缺血。通过椎动脉进入大脑的空气栓子会导致脑缺血，这将进一步加速由切断的颈动脉所造成的脑损伤。空气栓塞是动物和人类中已被充分记录的死亡原因，进入循环系统的空气量越大，死亡就越快发生。兽医应将空气栓塞视为宗教仪式屠宰中导致动物快速死亡的另一条途径。
