Temperature is used as an indicator of animals' response to external stimuli and thus it could potentially be used as an indicator or poor animal welfare and meat quality. Remote monitoring of temperature can be achieved using infrared thermography (IRT) at the farm of origin before animals are sent to slaughter. Relationships between temperatures of cattle measured using IRT on-farm and potential indicators of stress and meat quality were investigated in 481 cattle in 2 experiments, one with sea transport and another with land transport. On-farm measurements included IRT and behavioural assessment of temperament along with measurement of physiological indicators of stress and carcass traits post-mortem. Significant correlations were found between IRT and meat pH, meat colour, creatine kinase, glucose, non-esterified fatty acids, magnesium, and temperament (P < .05). That said, these correlations did not persist across both experiments. Current findings suggest that on-farm IRT could have the potential to assist with the detection of compromised animal welfare and predict meat quality.

温度被用作动物对外界刺激反应的指标，因此有可能被用作动物福利和肉质差的指标。在将动物送到屠宰场之前，可以使用原始农场的红外热像仪（IRT）进行温度的远程监控。在2个实验中，对481头牛进行了调查，研究了使用IRT农场测得的牛的温度与潜在的压力和肉质指标之间的关系，一个是海上运输，另一个是陆地运输。农场内的测量包括IRT和气质行为评估，以及应激后的生理指标和physiological体性状的测量。发现IRT与肉的pH，肉的颜色，肌酸激酶，葡萄糖，非酯化脂肪酸，镁，P  <.05）。就是说，这些相关性在两个实验中都没有持久。目前的发现表明，农场IRT可能有潜力帮助发现受损的动物福利并预测肉质。