PROCESSING ▶▶▶


Low stress handling ensures good quality broiler meat


Low stress handling is defined as using specific techniques in the approach, harvesting and handling of broilers in the period between leaving the production unit and arriving at the processing plant, to decrease stressors and avoid escalated fear and aggression.


BY SAMANEH AZARPAJOUH T


he growing world population has increased the de- mand for meat production and has led to rapid growth in the scale of broiler enterprises globally. The intensive husbandry practiced in broiler pro-


duction units has meant that broilers have become exposed to stressors more frequently. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) current global production of broilers is approaching 66 billion birds per annum. As a result of the large number of individual broilers being processed, stressors, such as environmental temperatures and pre-slaughter handling, have a significant economic impact on the broiler industry. Environmental temperatures and pre-slaughter handling procedures and practices can affect the process of converting muscle to meat, compromise meat quality and impose varying degrees of stress upon the broil- ers, thereby affecting their welfare status, decreasing poten- tial meat yield, and depreciating meat value due to hemor- rhaging, bruising, broken bones, undesirable colour and water-holding capacity.


Dead on arrival Furthermore, these stressors increase the number of broilers dead on arrival (DOA) at the processing plant which repre- sents a total loss of economic value. The average frequency of DOA broilers, ranging from 0.5% to 5% with an average mortality rate of about 0.2-0.42%, corresponds with the complete loss of around 1.2-2.9 million broilers a year. There- fore, it is essential to consider low stress handling strategies in the period between leaving the production unit and


arriving at processing plant to ensure good quality broiler carcasses and lean meat, as well as prevent financial losses and welfare problems.


Harvesting and handling broilers Harvesting and handling consist of manual or automatic catching of broilers and placing them in transport crates which are subsequently loaded onto vehicles and transport- ed to a processing plant. Catching and loading are important processes because if broilers are injured, this will have a pro- found effect on their response to the rest of the journey to the processing plant. Appropriate harvesting and handling procedures are essential to reduce stress, mortality and trau- ma, such as hemorrhages, bruises, femur dislocation at the hip joint and fractures. The effects of stressors are also likely to be greater where the handling time between production unit and processing plant is longer.


Automation of processes The benefits of developing and adopting automatic broiler harvesting and handling include lower costs, less bird stress, with fewer bruises and injuries to broilers. Automatic harvest- ing and handling improve the working conditions of live haul personnel as well. Comparisons between hand-catching labour costs and estimated labour costs associated with operating an automatic system suggest savings of over 60%.


Transporting broilers to processing plant Transporting broilers from the production unit to the process- ing plant is associated with fear and stress and is considered one of the most critical periods with regard to the risk of de- hydration. Although transport represents a brief period in the total lifespan of broilers, there are indications that it is a time when both mental and physical suffering can be considera- ble. The combination of stressors and the transport condi- tions are responsible for welfare issues during transport. Broilers are also very likely to suffer from thermal stress in transit due to difficult close environmental control in the crates on the vehicles. Most vehicle ventilation is passive and


▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 10, 2021 23


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