Guidelines for Humane Handling, Transport and Slaughter of Livestock












Table of Contents



Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

RAP Publication 2001/4

Compiled by:

Philip G. Chambers
Temple Grandin
Edited by:
Gunter Heinz
Thinnarat Srisuvan

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The word “countries” appearing in the text refers to countries, territories and areas without distinction. The designations “developed” and “developing” countries are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgement about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process. The opinions expressed in the articles by contributing authors are not necessarily those of FAO.

All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Application for such permission, with a statement of purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to Animal Production Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP), 39 Maliwan Mansion, Phra-Atit Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand.

© FAO 2001

Table of Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: Animal stress and pain

CHAPTER 2: Effects of stress and injury on meat and by-product quality

A. Meat quality

Pale Soft Exudative (PSE) meat (Fig. 1)
Dark Firm and Dry (DFD) meat (Fig. 1)
Spoilage of meat
Bruising and injury (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3)

B. Hides and skins quality

CHAPTER 3: Marketing systems and losses

Holding people accountable for losses
Segmented markets and piecework

CHAPTER 4: Principles of animal behavior

Relation of animal vision, hearing and smell to stress and injury

CHAPTER 5: Handling of livestock

General principles
Handling in crowd pens and races
Flight zone and point of balance (Fig. 11)
Designs of handling facilities

CHAPTER 6: Transport of livestock

Effects of transport
Methods of transport
Types of vehicles
Pre-loading precautions
Transport operations

CHAPTER 7: Slaughter of livestock

Preparing livestock for slaughter
Restraint devices
Stunning methods

Percussion stunning
Electrical stunning
Carbon dioxide gas stunning (Fig. 64, 65)

Malpractice in immobilization of livestock
Religious or ritual slaughter (Halal and Kosher)
Bleeding
Determining insensibility at slaughter

CHAPTER 8: Maintenance of good animal welfare standards

Five major critical control points
Objective scoring of efficacy standards at critical control points

CONCLUSION