Monitoring birds as they bleed-out on a shackle line

After a neck cut is administered, if a bird’s head remains attached to its body:

• Each bird must be checked for effective neck cutting and bleeding.
• Birds must be checked for continuing unconsciousness until death is confirmed.
• Birds must not be electrically stimulated or further processed in any way (eg plucked or scalded) until death is confirmed.

Following stunning, if a bird displays relatively greater amounts of convulsions (compared to other birds on that slaughterline), it may indicate the bird has not experienced cardiac arrest, and/or that it received a poor quality neck cut (and therefore has sustained a supply of oxygenated blood to nerves and muscles). Such birds must be examined for the quality of neck cutting and the effectiveness of stunning.

Before further processing, birds should be left to bleed for a sufficient time. In addition to achieving death, bleed-out durations of 2.25 – 3 minutes were found to be better for meat quality and produced equivalent bleed-out in birds that experienced cardiac arrest and those that did not.

If a bird appears to be recovering, it must be stunned and killed immediately using a humane back-up method, eg a captive-bolt device designed for poultry. Therefore, shackle lines must be designed to allow personnel to immediately and easily tend to any bird, anywhere on the line, without endangering themselves. For example:

• A shackle line that winds back on itself must be designed in a manner that allows personnel to immediately access birds anywhere on the line.
• Blood-collection troughs must not obstruct a person from removing a bird from a shackle or force the person to make an awkward manoeuvre.

Next: Maintenance of knives & automated mechanical neck cutters