Electrophysiologic Evidence of Loss of Consciousness in Cattle During Slaughter

Sheryl R. Haut authored a systematic review synthesizing neurophysiologic evidence on time to loss of consciousness in cattle during slaughter with and without stunning. The review, published on figshare in May 2026, includes nine studies assessed for risk of bias using ROBINS-I. It focuses on electrophysiologic methods like EEG and ECoG to quantify the interval between incision and loss of consciousness.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking time-to-LOC metrics for different slaughter methods based on the reported electrophysiologic data.
• Assessing methodological rigor in animal welfare research based on the ROBINS-I bias assessment discussed.
• Comparing results from electrocorticography (ECoG) and scalp EEG studies based on the methodological differences highlighted in the review.
• Informing policy discussions on religious slaughter practices based on the synthesized evidence for rapid LOC.

Strengths

• The review follows a PRISMA-guided systematic methodology, searching four major databases.
• It includes a risk-of-bias assessment for the nine included studies using the ROBINS-I tool.
• The document reports specific electrophysiologic time ranges, such as LOC occurring between 4.4 and 13 seconds after incision.

Limitations

• The dataset is a 16.0 KB DOCX file, indicating a limited scope focused on review text rather than raw experimental data.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The underlying studies show methodological differences and limitations, particularly between ECoG and scalp EEG, as noted in the results.

Provenance

Source

Sheryl R. Haut via figshare

Collection Method

Systematic review of literature from PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar.

Time Range

Literature search conducted through December 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-18 16:02:08