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Simple Summary: Donkey slaughter in Ghana was assessed through observing human–animal interactions prior to slaughter, and different methods of slaughter (slaughter without pre-stunning and two different methods of blunt force trauma to the head) were evaluated. Animals were hit multiple times by personnel during handling and movement. At slaughter, animals killed through neck cutting without pre-stunning showed signs of consciousness up to a mean time of 96.5 s. Animals experiencing blunt force trauma to the head took up to 166.9 s to lose consciousness when using a wooden pole. This method was five times more likely to be ineffective compared to blunt force trauma with a metal hammer. This study shows that donkeys in Ghana currently experience welfare compromise during all stages of the slaughter process; in particular, through aversive handling practises and ineffective slaughter methods, which delay the time to loss of consciousness and potentially increase suffering. Donkey slaughter in West Africa has received limited scientific attention, despite increasing over recent years. This study aimed to explore factors affecting donkey welfare, both ante-mortem and at slaughter, in the Upper East region of Ghana. A total of 134 donkeys at five different slaughter points were assessed using animal-based indicators. Slaughter involved either blunt force trauma (BFT) using a wooden pole (1 location) or a metal hammer (2 locations); or non-stun ventral neck incision (VNI) (2 locations). Time to loss of consciousness (or return) was assessed, with behavioural and brainstem signs of sensibility/consciousness. Negative human–animal interactions occurred ante-mortem, with animals struck multiple times and handled using aversive methods. Donkeys hit on the head with the wooden pole were five times more likely to be ineffectively concussed (p < 0.001, OR: 5.4, CI: 1.9–15.4) compared to the hammer and took significantly longer to lose consciousness (p < 0.001). The mean time to loss of corneal reflex for those hit by wooden pole was 166.9 s (SD 21.1; range: 79–425 s), compared to just one animal displaying corneal reflex for 59 s after being hit by metal hammer. For those animals slaughtered through VNI, corneal reflex was observed for a mean time of 96.5 s (SD 4.3, range 26–164 s). The findings of this study highlight major concerns regarding the methods used for donkey slaughter in the Upper East region in Ghana, particularly regarding aversive ante-mortem handling and prolonged time to loss of consciousness during VNI and ineffective BFT in inducing unconsciousness by concussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic anthropologists play a key role in skeletal trauma analysis and commonly use macroscopic features to distinguish between trauma types. However, this approach can be challenging, particularly in cases of highly comminuted or incompletely recovered fractures. Histological analysis of microscopic fracture characteristics in fractured bones may thus help provide additional information on trauma type and bone fracture biomechanics in general. This study analysed the extent of microcrack damage to osteons in long bones with blunt force trauma (BFT) and gunshot trauma (GST), from both traumatic death cases and post-mortem experimental fractures. We identified four types of osteonal damage (OD). In traumatic death cases, OD affecting the inside of the osteon and compromising the Haversian canal (type 1) was found to be indicative of BFT. Moreover, OD affecting the cement line (type 3) and interstitial lamellae (type 4) was more common in the GST samples. OD affecting the inside of the osteon without compromising the Haversian canal (type 2) was not found to be indicative of either trauma type. In cases of experimental fractures, our study revealed that post-mortem fractures in dry bone samples featured the highest amount of OD, particularly of type 4. This study also found that the experimentally produced GST featured similar OD patterns to GST death cases. These findings support our hypothesis that there are distinct osteonal damage patterns in human long bones with BFT and GST, which are of relevant value for trauma analysis in forensic anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following a recent death, a human skull was found in a worn physician bag at the decedent's residence. The bag was labeled with the name "G.B. Ward", who was found to be a practicing physician and surgeon in the late 1800s, and contained historic medical paraphernalia and letters and receipts dated to the late 1890s. A forensic anthropological analysis of the skull concluded that it was not of modern medicolegal significance but revealed certain inconsistencies with standard professionally prepared anatomical specimens. This initiated further investigation into the history of G.B. Ward, which ultimately resulted in the circumstantial identification of the skull and revealed more than forty detailed newspaper accounts of its evidentiary use in an 1895 homicide trial in the rural United States. Ultimately, the Prosecution's argument was likely based on the misinterpretation of a transmaxillary (Le Fort) fracture, which had yet to be defined in the medical literature. This case study emphasizes the importance of investigative and forensic anthropological efforts and cautions against cursory designations of skeletal remains as medical specimens. It also highlights the early recognition of the evidentiary value of skeletal remains in court cases and pioneering efforts in performing forensic skeletal trauma analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: When recovered skeletal remains reveal fractures, one of the main challenges is to determine the timing of the trauma. In particular, fractures that are related to death are of high forensic relevance. The common macroscopic criteria used in forensic anthropology may make it possible to determine whether a fracture occurred in a fresh or in a dry bone. Whilst dry bone fractures clearly occurred after death, fresh bone fractures are not always vital fractures. This is one of the biggest issues for forensic anthropologists. Depending on the period of time and surrounding conditions after death, bones can retain their fresh properties due to the preservation of water and organic components. The aim of this study is to test whether the histological assessment of microcracking patterns assists in determining the vitality of a fresh fracture. As we hypothesized after a previous study, our results further support that vital fractures exhibit a higher ratio of osteonal/interstitial microcracks than non-vital fractures. Moreover, we found that axial bone compression may be used to simulate intra vitam conditions in fracture experiments. Our results show that the osteonal microcracking pattern can potentially be used as a marker of vital trauma, thereby improving the probative value of forensic anthropological investigations. In forensic anthropology, the differential diagnosis between peri- and postmortem bone fractures is mainly based on macroscopic criteria. In contrast, studies focusing on bone histology are very scarce. In a recent publication, we showed that (perimortem) fractures in fresh human bones exhibit a different osteonal microcracking pattern than (postmortem) damage in dry bones. In the current work, we explored whether this osteonal microcracking pattern is distinctive of the vitality of (perimortem) fresh bone fractures. To this end, we compared the number, length and structural distribution of microcracks in vital humeral fractures from forensic autopsy cases with experimentally reproduced, three point-bending fractures in fresh and dry human humeri. Half of the fresh experimental bones were fractured whilst applying axial compression, i.e., attempting to simulate intra vitam conditions more accurately. The results showed a similar osteonal microcracking pattern between vital fractures and experimental fractures of fresh humeri subjected to axial compression. Interestingly, this pattern was significantly different from the one observed in the experimental fractures of fresh humeri without axial compression and dry humeri. This supports our hypothesis that the osteonal microcracking pattern can potentially be used as a marker for vital perimortem trauma, providing a histomorphometric tool for fracture timing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In forensic anthropology, skeletal trauma analysis can assist pathologists in determining the circumstance, cause, and manner of death. Determining whether the trauma is related to falls or induced by homicidal blows is often asked in relevance to legal issues. The hat brim line rule (HBL) is one of the most commonly used methods. The rule says that fractures resulting from blows may be found above and within the HBL, not on the skull's base. Recent studies have found that the HBL rule must be used carefully, and postcranial skeletal trauma could be useful in this distinction. Evidence presented in court must follow Daubert's guidelines for validity and reliability (evidence validated; error rates known; standards available; findings should be peer-reviewed and accepted by the scientific community). In this study, we assessed skeletal fracture patterns resulting from both etiologies. We tested various models for the method; the best one was based on the binary coding of 12 anatomical regions or 28 bones with or without baseline (age and sex). The results show the possible identification of the etiology in 83% of the cases. This method could be helpful for forensic experts in the interpretation of bone fractures. In this study, we propose a classification method between falls and blows using random forests. In total, 400 anonymized patients presenting with fractures from falls or blows aged between 20 and 49 years old were used. There were 549 types of fractures for 57 bones and 12 anatomical regions observed. We first tested various models according to the sensibility of random forest parameters and their effects on model accuracies. The best model was based on the binary coding of 12 anatomical regions or 28 bones with or without baseline (age and sex). Our method achieved the highest accuracy rate of 83% in the distinction between falls and blows. Our findings pave the way for applications to help forensic experts and archaeologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Human remains are often burned in an effort to conceal the identity of the victim and/or obscure traumatic injuries related to the death event. Thermal exposure can produce artifacts resembling trauma and disguise preexisting trauma. However, there is a paucity of experimental studies with varied results addressing the differentiation of thermally induced artifacts from traumatic signatures. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted a small-scale study using domestic pigs as correlates to test the impact of thermal alteration on blunt force trauma to the cranium. Two tools (e.g., hammer and crowbar) were utilized to manually inflict injuries on the human analogs before controlled burning in an outdoor environment. The results of this experiment demonstrated that the most diagnostic variable to differentiate thermally induced alternations from blunt force fractures was fracture pattern. In forensic scenarios involving homicide, human remains are often exposed to fire as a means of disposal and/or obscuring identity. Burning human remains can result in the concealment of traumatic injury, the creation of artifacts resembling injury, or the destruction of preexisting trauma. Since fire exposure can greatly influence trauma preservation, methods to differentiate trauma signatures from burning artifacts are necessary to conduct forensic analyses. Specifically, in the field of forensic anthropology, criteria to distinguish trauma from fire signatures on bone is inconsistent and sparse. This study aims to supplement current forensic anthropological literature by identifying criteria found to be the most diagnostic of fire damage or blunt force trauma. Using the skulls of 11 adult pigs (Sus scrofa), blunt force trauma was manually produced using a crowbar and flat-faced hammer. Three specimens received no impacts and were utilized as controls. All skulls were relocated to an outdoor, open-air fire where they were burned until a calcined state was achieved across all samples. Results from this experiment found that blunt force trauma signatures remained after burning and were identifiable in all samples where reassociation of fragments was possible. This study concludes that distinct patterns attributed to thermal fractures and blunt force fractures are identifiable, allowing for diagnostic criteria to be narrowed down for future analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]