|
Rico turkey Processing has developed an alternative stunning system for poultry which has been patented in many countries.
Goals:
- System must be animal friendly
- Same advantages as gas stunning
- Not much more expensive than
traditional water bath stunners and
much cheaper than gas stunning
systems
General:
Stunning of animals is applied to induce a state of unconsciousness and insensibility of sufficient duration to ensure that the animal does not recover before exsanguination results in death. It is accepted that unconsciousness and insensibility should be induced promptly to minimize detrimental effects on animal welfare and meat quality. It is generally stated that animals must be spared any avoidable excitement, pain or suffering during movement, lairaging, restraint, stunning, slaughter or killing. (EFSA, 2004). Furthermore, stunning should not have negative effects on carcass or meat quality.
Electrical stunning is normally used to induce unconsciousness during cutting and bleeding for reasons of animal welfare in the EU or to induce immobilization to facilitate automatic neck cutting in the USA. In broiler chicken production, it is common that the animals are hung by the legs from shackles and stunning is done electrically by immersion of the head and neck of the bird in an electrified water bath. In a water bath, in which electrical current is applied to the whole body, a minimum current of 120 mA per bird is recommended to induce unconsciousness and a cardiac arrest. This recommended minimum current for broilers in the EU increases quality defects (haemorrhages, broken bones) of carcasses and broiler meat. It is apparent that there is a conflict between welfare and meat quality under the electrical water bath stunning and/or killing procedure. Therefore, this alternative methods for stunning poultry has been developed. Well known and famous experts on stunning of animals of the Dutch Animal Sciences Group were asked to study the Rico stunning method.
Study and results:
The study for this system was performed by the Dutch Animal Sciences Group. To identify the electrical current and exposure time to render broiler chickens unconscious and insensible instantaneously at slaughter using a head to cloaca water bath stunner. The methods were assessed by using EEG (electro-encephalography) and ECG (electro-cardiography).
Results of the study were published in the Poultry Science issue of October 2008.
Website Poultry Science : http://ps.fass.org/
The Rico stunning method for poultry:
The birds are hung by the legs from shackles and are stunned electrically by immersion of the head of the bird in a water bath. The water is one electrode and a steel coned shaped electrode inside and the region around the cloaca is the other electrode.
Click here to download more information
Fill in the contact form to receive more information
|
