AN OBSERVATIONAL COHORT STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF CATCHING METHOD ON CARCASS REJECTION RATES IN BROILERS

Automatic broiler catching machines have been developed for several re asons. Manual catching is expensive, often rough and may cause injury to the birds. Apart from om animal welfare considerations, the demand for good quality meat means that rejection rates must be kept at a low level. The poor working conditions for manual catching teams are also an important factor. Only a few scientific studies on the effects of catching machines on bird health and welfare have been published. In t his study, the carcase rejection rates in relation to manual and mecha nical catching were compared at a poultry abattoir following a change of loading and unloading systems. The effect on the level of birds fou nd 'dead on arrival' at the slaughterhouse initially varied considerab ly, regardless of catching method. During the last 3-month period of t he study however, mechanically caught flocks showed significantly high er frequencies of dead birds on arrival than manually caught flocks. D uring the same last period, when running-in problems should be regarde d as solved, the prevalence of bruises was also still significantly hi gher in the mechanically caught flocks, whereas the prevalence of frac tures did not differ significantly between the two groups. This sugges ts that there are still opportunities for further improvements of the machine, although in Sweden it has now been accepted for commercial us e in accordance with Swedish animal welfare legislation, under the sup ervision of the National Board of Agriculture.