The animal welfare is a series of practices that involves the maintenance of psychological and physiological freedoms of animals, to them remain healthy until slaughter and provide a satisfactory quality carcass and to avoid unnecessary suffering to animals. One way to evaluate the animal welfare is monitoring the occurrence of bruises on carcasses that is an indicative of inadequate management of the animals. The present study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of bruises in cattle carcasses at a slaughterhouse located in the Midwest Region of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Was applied a "check-list" that determined the presence of bruises, the location and severity of them, ranking among scores I to III. Was observed in 98% (880/898) of the animals the presence of contusion. The Grade I injuries in the region of the hips at half carcasses had higher incidence with an average of 61.8% between the right and left sides. Could be observed multiple lesions in several animals slaughtered. In 133 animals observed were removed 15.6 kilograms of material only the injured region only of the hips, demonstrating economic losses to cattle farmers and industries for failures in animal welfare practices. The inappropriate pre-slaughter management compromises animal welfare and the quality of carcasses, discrediting our products on international meat trade and consisting in economic losses to the national cattle herds.
animal welfare; lesions; meat quality; slaughter