Slaughter of animals is a necessary step of meat production process that takes place out of public view, but that is a subject of consumers' and civil society organisations' concern. Public policies are progressing constantly to meet social expectations and optimize official controls in...

Poultry meat especially chicken meat is loved by consumers due to its high protein, low fat, low cholesterol, low calorie, and high nutritional value, and in recent years chicken meat has become the second most consumed meat after pork in China. As the broiler slaughter industry continues to...

The objective was to evaluate whether space allowance during preslaughter transport of European breeding quail affects welfare, carcass traits and meat quality. A total of 248 quails (body weight = 344.90 ± 2.09 g) were used. During pre-transport, the quails were fasted for 5 hours and 30 minutes....

Increased consumer concern for animal welfare has led some poultry producers to alter their stunning methods from electrical to controlled atmosphere stunning. The potential for different impacts on meat quality between commercially applied controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) and electrical ...

The prevalence and inter-observer repeatability of the four most valid and feasible indicators of consciousness after waterbath stunning in turkeys were evaluated before bleeding (i.e., tonic convulsion, breathing, spontaneous blinking and vocalization) and during bleeding (i.e., fluttering,...

In order to investigate the effects of electrical stunning on slaughter stress and post-slaughter meat quality in pigeons, meat-type pigeons aged 28 days under the same feeding conditions were chosen and subjected to electrical stunning with different voltages (50-90 V) before slaughter (0 V as...

Electroencephalography (EEG) can be reliable for assessing the brain's electrical activity of preslaughter stress and pain. The duration between the ventral neck cut and induction of a state of unconsciousness/insensibility is crucial in the slaughtering of animals, reducing pain, fear, and...

Pigs are commonly stunned pre-slaughter by exposure to carbon dioxide (CO₂), but this approach is associated with significant welfare concerns. Hypobaric hypoxia, achieved with gradual decompression (also known as Low Atmospheric Pressure Stunning or LAPS) may be an alternative, allowing the...

Alternatives to carbon dioxide (CO₂) stunning for the commercial slaughter of pigs are urgently needed because there is robust evidence that exposing pigs to hypercapnic environments is associated with pain, fear, and distress. Hypobaric hypoxia (via gradual decompression, also known as Low...

Mixing livestock and poultry kept separately in batches of similar weights and ages increases stress, engages them in fighting on arrival at processing facilities, exhausts them because of long-distance transport, rough handling, deprivation of water or feed. All this has effects on animal welfare...