Journal article
Bushfire exposure is associated with increased pH and dark-cutting in beef longissimus thoracis at grading
Melindee Hastie, Graham Hepworth, Alison Hillman, Brendan Cowled, Caitlin Pfeiffer, Robyn D Warner
MEAT SCIENCE | ELSEVIER SCI LTD | Published : 2023
Abstract
To investigate if bushfire exposure is associated with increased loin pH, this study analysed temporal and geospatial data on fire incidence in South-Eastern Australia together with beef carcase quality and production records for fire affected animals (n = 451,299). Two outcomes were modelled: 1) loin pH at time of grading, and 2) the incidence of “high pH” defects (pH > 5.70). For both models, decreasing “time since closest fire” and “distance of property from closest fire” were associated with increasing loin pH and increased incidence of high pH carcases(p < 0.05 for all); interactions for “distance from the closest fire” with feed type (grain vs grass) and “days of fire exposure” with HG..
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Awarded by Meat & Livestock Australia
Funding Acknowledgements
This research was funded by Meat & Livestock Australia, as part of Project B.AHE.2102. We thank Nicholas Sharpe from NSW RFS for facilitating provision of bushfire extent mapping from NSW and Naomi Withers from Victorian Department of Environment, Land Water and planning for facilitating provision of bushfire extent mapping from Victoria. We thank Janine Lau of MLA for provision of MSA data. Bar- bara Moloney and Catherine Fraser provided PIC data from NSW and Alison Lee provided PIC data for Victoria under strict privacy requirements. We also acknowledge the staff at the processing plants who consented to having their data utilised for these analyses for the benefit of the industry.