J. Anim Sci.
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J. Anim Sci. 1984. 58:68-74.
© 1984 American Society of Animal Science
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Electrical Activity in the Cerebral Hemispheres of Electrically Stunned Pigs1

H. J. Swatland, R. J. Brogna and G. H. Lutte

University of Guelph2, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Surgically implanted electrodes located on the left and right cerebral hemispheres of 15 pigs were used to measure voltages across the brain during electrical stunning. At a nominal voltage of 320 V, the maximum current through the head was 2.4 ± .3 A, 279.3 ± 14.1 V, and the maximum voltage across the brain was 8.7 ± 3.1 V. Recovery of consciousness took 34.8 ± 12.4 s. When stunned a second time at 320 V (approximately 5 min after stun 1), the maximum current through the head was increased to 2.9 ± .3 A (P<.01). When recorded from the implanted electrodes, brain activity (electrocorticography or ECoG) was fairly constant in frequency: 3.28 ± 1.15 Hz when animals were conscious before stunning, 2.97 ± .87 Hz when unconscious, 2.65 ± .85 Hz during exsanguination and 2.65 ± 1.05 Hz after exsanguination. Electrocorticographic amplitude corresponded to the general degree of muscle activity associated with struggling (both conscious and unconscious), but the head down reflex that occurs after exsanguination did not correspond to ECoG activity in the cerebral hemispheres. In conscious animals that were not struggling, moderate stimuli such as pinching the hindfoot appeared on the ECoG. Only when animals were not struggling could this criterion be used to assess the degree of consciousness during slaughter operations.

Footnotes

1 Research supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and by a Strategic Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

2 Dept. of Anim. and Poul. Sci. R. J. Brogna and G. H. Lutte are on the staff of the Food Production and Inspection Branch of Agriculture Canada.






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Copyright © 1984 by the American Society of Animal Science.