Condition of Local Cattle at Slaughterhouses in Phnom Penh City, Cambodia

The survey was conducted four times between September 2015 and June 2016 with an interval of three months. Each survey lasted for 7 days at two main slaughterhouses in Phnom Penh city: Chroy Chongva and Beung Salang slaughterhouses. The objective of this study is to evaluate the perceptions of cattle traders on their business and the BCS (Body Condition Score) of cattle arriving slaughterhouses. Results have shown that the interviewed traders started their business between 1995 and 2013. Most of them bought 3 to 4 cattle per time and slaughtered one head of cattle each day with an interval of one day transit. The buying of cattle relied on collectors and during of the time of study cattle were purcahsed from 13 different provinces. The supply of cattle was high from July to August and low from March to April. When arriving gathering areas nearby slaughterhouse, cattle were sent to slaughterhouse within one day and could be maintained with one week. Beef was mostly sold by themselves and to their relatives for retailing. They also sold beef to outside retailer, distributor and sold at market. The price of beef was high from March to April. High percentage of male cattle were found in slaughterhouses than female cattle with the age of 3 to 6 years old. High distribution of cattle were found to have BCS between 2 and 3 scores, and it is found that male cattle had higher BCS than female cattle. The amount of meat varies with BCS, e.g. up to 57.56% of total liveweight when BCS was 4 scores. The price of live cattle varies with cattle BCS and meat proportion of animal.