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FAIR Project Improving Hide and Skin Quality a project funded by the European Commission The content of this
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Newsletter No 5 (1999)
This fifth newsletter under the FAIR project "Factors affecting hide and skin quality: Development of strategies for improving the raw material of the leather industry" is dedicated to giving a report on the Project Workshop which was held on Wednesday 14 June 2000 at the premises of Centre Technique du Cuir (CTC) in Lyon. Twenty one partners and experts from twelve different countries attended the meeting which comprised six presentations on aspects affecting hide and skin quality - parasites, handling and husbandry, and systems and control - followed by detailed discussion.
As a reminder, the overall objectives of the FAIR project are to:
• co-ordinate networks for the exchange of information on hide and skin improvement
• to produce information materials (newsletter, leaflets, website, Computer Aided Training Package)
• assess the current state of research and identify areas where further research is required.
A strategic aim of the Project is to gain support from the European Commission to develop further pan- European projects in the important area of improving the quality of hides and skins. The plan is to move on from the present introductory project to develop a Research Project and then a Demonstration Project.
The specific aims of the Workshop were to:
• review what had been done in the past
• exchange views on what was being done at present and the current state of knowledge
• identify areas and priorities for further research
• lay the foundation for a proposal for a follow up project
The presentations and discussions were well received by all those attending and the broad consensus was to explore possible further projects on one or more of the following issues:
(1) Development of an integrated programme of parasite and disease control on farms; this would include further research on defining recommended methods on control on the main target parasites - lice, demodex, sheep scab, ticks and ringworm - including cleaner and novel methods of control.
(2) In view of the high profile currently being given to dirty livestock and the hygiene aspects of, especially the E-Coli 0157 bacterium - a comprehensive project on husbandry and handling techniques to keep animals clean on farms and during transport, and on non-damaging ways of cleaning animals in the event that they become dirty.
(3) Bearing in mind the growing needs to trace materials through the production chain for health, hygiene and hide improvement reasons, there is still a need to develop and validate a practical and commercially viable system of identifying hides and skins through the chain; a suitable system could form the basis of providing direct incentives to farmers and/or abattoirs for supplying consistent good quality hides and skins.
(4) Explore practical ways of implementing penalty/reward systems for farmers and abattoirs in relation to hide and skin quality under the different market conditions which apply throughout Europe.
These priorities were broadly endorsed by the project partners who met in conjunction with the Workshop. The final meeting of partners is planned to finalise the research priorities for the sector regarding hide and skin quality improvement and this will be reported in more detail in the sixth and final Newsletter.
Copies of the overheads from all of the presentations at the workshop are available on request from the project co-ordinator.
Dr. Gerald Coles of The University of Bristol, Dept. Clinical Veterinary Science, gave an overview of a recently conducted project involving BLC Leather Technology Centre Limited. The project had four main objectives:
to examine the effects of biting flies on hide quality
to compare hide quality between lice free and lice infested calves
to compare differences between infestation in the first and second year cattle
to determine to the rate of reversion of light spot damage following lice treatment of calves
The project which is reported in more detail in Newsletter number 4, under current research activities, was designed to cover a variety of treatment regimes for cattle slaughtered at 12 and 24 months. The variations included animals kept clear of lice throughout, cattle not treated for lice at all, cattle treated at 6 weeks and twelve weeks before slaughter, and those treated in one year, and not the other.
Of the animals that were slaughtered in the first year, those kept lice free gave higher commercial grades with lower levels of lightspot and fleck. The animals that were infested with lice at slaughter gave the lowest grades due to extensive lightspot and fleck damage. Of the remaining two groups that were lousy and then treated to clear the existing infestations, those animals that were left twelve weeks prior to slaughter had significantly improved leather quality when compared to the untreated controls. The group that were cleared for six weeks demonstrated only a slight improvement in quality, with less variation within the group.
The animals slaughtered in the second year followed a similar pattern, with the highest grades achieved by those that were lice free and the lowest grades achieved by those infested at the time of slaughter.
The results for all the animals from both the first winter calves and full term slaughter cattle are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Commercial grades of dyed
crust leathers from cattle slaughtered
in the first (blue columns) and second winters (red columns) of
the trial.
(Gradings 1= good; 4 = poor)
(n=5 for all treatment groups; s.d. = standard deviation)
The results from the gradings can be summarised as follows:
• Lice at the time of slaughter significantly increased the amount of damage seen on the hide, both in terms of area and severity for both lightspot and fleck.
• Animals kept lice free throughout their lives gave hides with the least amount of damage and the highest commercial grades.
• Scratch type damage was increased on animals that had lice during the winter.
• Ectoparasite treatments administered at least twelve weeks prior to slaughter gave quality improvements, with "resolution" of damage.
• The "resolution" of damage following treatment was quicker in full term animals than in calves
These results clearly promote the proactive approach to treatment. The improvements seen in "cleared" cattle were significant and this treatment strategy could realistically be incorporated into the production cycle. The increase in value paid for these hides and subsequently realised post processing, would outweigh the cost of the treatments involved, thus making the strategy viable for both the farmer and tanner.
Conclusions
The overall findings from this study clearly link the incidence of lightspot and fleck damage on leather to infestation of the live animal with lice. The treatments used to control lice in this study are commercially available and clearly improve leather quality by reducing lightspot and fleck, resulting in improved grades. It is timely that the tanner express his quality requirements down the production chain to the farmer and encourage the use of the ectoparasitic treatments. This will be achieved with positive price signals and will improve the profitability of both sectors.
Claes Gyllensvaan of Kontrolhudar International
(KHI) gave a historic account of the Faultless Hide Programme
that operates in Sweden. The programme was initiated in the early
1990’s in an attempt to bring hide quality issues to the
farmers attention and to improve raw material quality. The
programme requires farmers to take remedial action to prevent
some of the most common forms of hide damage. These include:
- the use of electrical fencing instead of barbed wire
- removal of horns to prevent scratch damage
- vaccination against Ringworm
- reduction of dung on hides to improve grain quality
The use of anti-parasitic agents to control lice and reduce lightspot damage was added to improve raw material quality. KHI now sell and distribute a lice control product for farmers, whether involved in the programme or not. Mr. Gyllensvaan stated that 60,000 hides are supplied each year throughout the programme and that many other farmers now use lice and Ringworm control products distributed by KHI. The implication was that the work on the Golden Hide Scheme had spilled over to give a general hide improvement benefit in Sweden, even for hides produced outside the scheme. The other aspect was that after a period of initial investment by KHI when the Golden Hide Scheme had cost money to operate, the Scheme was now operating on a commercial basis.
Mr. Gyllensvaan commented that Sweden was currently involved in a complete quality approach to cattle production, the FRISSO system, under which the whole production cycle is critically assessed. He concluded that he believed this to be the way forward to improve raw material quality at each link in the chain.
| This presentation was given by Dr. Nigel
French of Dept. Clinical Veterinary Science, University
of Liverpool. It was presented as a case study of the
methodology by which a disease in an animal population
could be addressed. He began by outlining the UK
situation of sheep scab and giving a detailed overview on
the ecology and epidemiology of the scab mite, Psoroptes
ovis. By studying historic data related to scab outbreaks
in the UK, both in terms of time and geographical
differences, Dr. French had amassed a complete picture on
the spread of the disease in the last 30 years and
factors which had contributed to the successful
re-establishment of the scab mite. In addition, the
spread of the scab mite through sheep populations had
also been studied under experimental conditions to
further understand the mechanism of transfer and
infestation. Dr. French is using this information to
generate simulation models which aim to establish the
dynamics of sheep scab and its transmission through a
sheep population. He concluded by stating that in order to control scab, it is vital to understand the nature of the disease. This requires a multidisciplinary approach involving ecology, ethology and epidemiology. Also:
Only when the disease is properly understood can effective potential control strategies be developed and tested to tackle the spread of the disease. |
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Joe Gibson, who specialises in Hide Improvement and hide traceability systems reported on experience and recent developments in Australia. The background here was based mainly in the north of the country, although the system was now being extended to southern areas. In the north, there were large farms and a limited number of slaughterhouses who tended to trade the hides on their own account. There was also a limited number of (mainly wet blue) tanneries. Thus the classic precondition of a short and compact distribution chain was in place. The northern areas also tend to produce hides suffering from types of gross damage - ie easier to identify than more subtle damage. However, the lessons learned in the north formed a basis for developing the system for use in the more complex structure of the south.
The whole system had to be driven by payment for quality - just talking would not work. The catchwords were Value Based Marketing. Unless the price paid related directly to the quality supplied, there was no incentive to improve.
Grading systems had to be
Quantitative not Qualitative
Objective not subjective
Consistent not variable
Quality assurance and feedback systems needed an efficient hide ID system - the ideal system had the following features:
Unique code on each hide
Machine Readable
Human readable
Human decodable
Hygienic and safe to apply on the
kill floor
Readable with hair on hair off
Readable on grain and split
Software driven code
Selectable number of digits
(10, 12, 14...)
Applicable while hide still on the
animal
Lasts through to finished leather
100% retrieval
He had been evaluating different types of coding machines - such as sequentially stamping and bar coded tags - and the current conclusion was that a hybrid system gave the best option.
The hide grading system used graded hides from
5 - the best
to 1 - very bad (0 was a reject)
for five variables
It was reported that 70-80,000 hides a week were being graded using this technique. The tannery software involved was now in its twelfth version.
Guidance on producing good hides was:
Handle stock quietly
Transport carefully
Cull ill-tempered stock
Use poll cattle, dehorn or tip
Maintain gates and yards
Brand sensibly OR use alternative identification
Control parasites
Use electric fences
Future possibilities were
Using DNA as the ultimate ID
Firmly establish a link between parasite damage and meat yields
Manage the value chain
Develop rapid Business to Business ecommerce for rapid information exchange
Develop grading at wet blue for specific end uses
In summary, the basics are in place for a quality feedback system in Australia, but for any system to work, the participants must gain some value. There is no single prescription for taking advantage of the opportunities, and no system is automatically transferable from one situation to another. Changes will not happen automatically - they need to be driven - and there has to be a payback.
This presentation summarised the background to the European gelatine manufacturing industry, as one of the prime by-products from raw hides arising from the hide and leather industry. It also traced the history of EU legislation controlling the use of by-products for the manufacture of gelatine, notably following the BSE situation in 1996, setting out the situation in the UK and in Europe for the trade and manufacture of gelatine and tallow. These rules began the process of requiring secure traceability of material from the animal - proof that it was fit for human consumption - through the chain to the gelatine producer and the producer of tallow.
Since hide by-products would be expected to make a significant contribution to a tanners’ operating margin, these growing requirements to trace materials from the abattoir, through to the tannery and from there to the producer of products for the human food, animal feed, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries as assurance that the material is fit for human consumption, therefore place another incentive on the industry to establish a practical and secure method of tracing hides through the system.
Co-ordinator:
BLC Leather Technology Centre · Leather Trade
House
Kings Park Road · Moulton Park · Northampton · NN3 6JD · UK
Tel: +44 1604 67 99 99 · Fax: +44 (0)1604 67 99 98