Evaluation of chevon characteristics to assess xylazine and ascorbic acid efficacy in rendering welfare to bucks subjected to long road transportation and stocking stress

Stress in transported bucks as food animals can cause generation of reactive oxygen species at the cellular level which compromises the quality of chevon and could be detrimental to consumer’s health. This could also cause monetary losses which would affect that agro-economics. This prompted this study in which sixty apparently healthy Sahel bucks were investigated upon. There were two studies a therapeutic intervention study and a non intervention study respectively. All animals were subjected to long term transportation in the harmattan. The intervention study groups were pre-treated with xylazine, ascorbic acid, combination and control which had 6 animals each with each group having a sub-group that were stocked as and low and high stocking rates. While in the non- intervention study, 12 animals were separated to two groups of 6 each, stocked at high and low stocking with no pretreatment. Experimental animals were offloaded after undergoing a journey of 28 hours and were subsequently transported. They were later slaughtered by severing of the trachea, esophagus and all structures of the investing fascia of the neck. Chevon characteristics evaluated were shrinkage, water holding capacity, pH colour, cooking loss and for excitatory score at slaughter. The combination (xylazine-ascorbic acid) significantly (p<0.05) decreased in shrinkage percentage, and improved; empty body weight, ultimate pH and cooking loss percentage. There were significant (p<0.05) interactions between various treatment regimens and stocking rate on the following parameters: excitatory score at slaughter, water holding capacity, pH and colour in the intervention study. In non-intervention study, there were significant (p<0.05) differences in the following parameters excitatory score at slaughter, empty body weight and luminosity in the meat colour due difference in stocking. Conclusively, this study gives credence that therapeutic intervention had effect on chevon quality when pretreated for transportation stress attenuation.