Vang- en ketenletsel bij vleeskuikens op verschillende momenten in de keten : PPS oorzaken en oplossingen vangletsel & ketenletsel - LWV 20.143

Samenvatting

Catching, transporting, stunning and killing of broiler chickens can cause injuries or damage to the animals like haemorrhages, bone fractures or dislocations. These injuries are a serious welfare impairment when occurring during the life of the animals. The results of this study show that injuries and damage occur in each step of the production chain and that an increase can be seen over time. The moment of scoring injuries is of importance for determining the origin of the injury. Catching broilers in an upright position results in significantly less catching injuries when compared to the standard catching method of inverting birds on the legs, mechanical catching, or loading from a patio system. Mechanical catching results in an increase in haemorrhages compared to the standard catching method, but not in more bone fractures or dislocations. Animals that are loaded from a patio housing system show more haemorrhages and bone fractures and/or dislocations compared to animals caught with the standard inverted method from a conventional broiler house. The number of injuries is higher when arriving at the slaughter house compared to just after catching. This increase interacts with catching method. Carefulness of catching differs between catching methods and a lower speed of catching is correlated with less injuries. All slaughterhouses show an increase in wing injuries/damage scored on the slaughter line compared to just after arriving at the slaughterhouse. This increase varies between slaughterhouses. It was proven possible to score damaged wings with the help of video analysis in the slaughter line. The results of this study give insight in the cause and prevention of injuries and damage occurring from catching up to slaughtering of broiler chickens.