Mr. Deddy
Sukoharjo-Central Java
I am a cattle farmer. How to deal with stress in cows due to long trips? Why can cause a decrease in the quality and quantity of meat in beef cattle? Are there drugs or vitamins that can help improve cow performance when under stress?
Answer :
Transportation of livestock over long distances such as between islands or between cities is very often encountered. However, too long a distance and too long a journey will cause stress in livestock, which has an impact on weight loss and livestock performance. Berikut tabel standar maksimal jarak yang ditetapkan oleh Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Stress cases post transportation usually the same goes for newly arrived cows. Berutu (2007) reported that the decrease in weight of cattle due to travel stress varies between the range of 2 kg to 21.33 kg/head with an average of 9.71 kg/head. Some researchers report that transportation activities such as the transport, loading, distribution and unloading of cattle carried out using ships, trucks or other transport can generally result in stress (Anton et al., 2016).
Glycogen is an energy material for muscle activity in animals. In healthy animals, it generally has high levels of glycogen. After the animal is slaughtered, glycogen will be converted into lactic acid. It is this lactic acid that gives the meat a delicate and piquant taste. Animals that experience stress before slaughter, will have low glycogen levels because in a state of stress the body needs a lot of energy. So that lactic acid levels in meat after slaughter will be low. This leads to a deterioration in the quality of meat.
The main factors that cause stress in cows during transportation are climatic or meteorological characteristics (temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation) and non-climatic factors (handling of cows at the time of unloading, travel time, vibration, vehicle design, density and availability of feed and drinking water). One of them when transporting cows by truck vehicles is generally in a standing position and cannot move freely so that the cows are jostled and stressed during transportation.
When transported by truck, cows stand for hours in crowded truck conditions. Sometimes the cows are rested for a while to eat and drink, but not infrequently the cows are immediately distributed without a break.
Upon arrival at the destination, the cows will arrive in a state of exhaustion, this is what triggers physical stress, aggravated by different conditions in a new place, the cow must adapt to the environment in a less fit state, as a result, the cow's appetite decreases, even to illness, so that the weight drops dramatically in the first month.
To overcome this, cows that travel more than 3 hours should be given the opportunity to take a break to eat and drink in the region halfway between the place of origin and destination. Before departure, the cow should be given vitamins dissolved in the drink. In addition, the cattle transport truck is a truck that is really capable of transporting livestock, not too dense and not driven at too high a speed. Next, handling the cow in the truck is done well, especially the way the cow is roped, make sure the rope is not too short, because it can hurt or injure the cow, and also not too long, because it has the potential to widen the cow's movement space in the truck so that the cow is difficult to control.
Those cows that are weak, for example, can not stand, need to be additionally given vitamin supplements plus Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to increase energy and overcome muscle disorders experienced by cows. ATP is one of the most important and indispensable energy materials needed by the body. One of the Medion products that can be used is Bioselvita. Bioselvita contains ATP, Magnesium, potassium, sodium and vitamin B12 which can help overcome muscle disorders and repair muscle tissue before and after transport so it is appropriate to use as a post-transport energy enhancer.
