Assessing attitudes and methods for on-farm dispatching of poultry in the United Kingdom 

Year: 2021

Alexandra Paraskevopoulou 
University of Edinburgh, UK

Supervisor: Dr Jessica Martin 

HSA Student/Trainee Scholarship 2021

Due to the large range of killing methods available to the poultry industry, an investigation of what methods are being used and why is essential. To this aim, the focus of our study was to identify the on-farm despatching methods used in commercial farms in the United Kingdom, as well as the reasons behind these choices and attitudes towards legislation that governs permitted methods. Independently of poultry type, the most used despatching method on farm was manual cervical dislocation (70%). Participants reported this method as being humane, quick in its application, as well as not expensive with 67-73% of stock-workers strongly agreeing with those killing method properties. However, when assessing poultry care staff preferences to particular methods, those that worked with turkeys preferred the use of cartridge powered captive bolt (65%) and those working with ducks preferred mechanical cervical dislocation using the Livetec Nex® (67%). While agreement scores varied among participants, most agreed that the Council Regulation (EC) no. 1099/2009 restrictions currently in place have impacted their choices of killing methods for individual poultry on farm.