Webinar: Assessment of consciousness after waterbath stunning of turkeys

Thursday 14 November 2022, from 10.00h to 12.00h (UTC +2, CEST)

Organized by EURCAW-Poultry-SFA.

The webinar was held via Teams.

Target audience: Official inspectors from the Competent Authorities of the EU MSs

Attendance through invitation only.

 

The PDF of the presentation is available here.

The webinar recording is available here

 

Description:

Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 of 24 September 2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing requires assessing the state of consciousness of the animals in order to identify if the stunning and killing have been effectively done, but it is not an easy assessment.

During this webinar, EURCAW-Poultry-SFA reviewed the most valid, reliable, and feasible indicators to assess the state of consciousness after waterbath stunning (WBS) of turkeys, before and after bleeding, giving the opportunity for discussion and doubts resolution.

 

The aim of the webinar was to:

  • Review the most valid indicators of consciousness after WBS.
  • Discuss the main results of the EURCAW-Poultry-SFA study on test inter-observer repeatability and feasibility of the indicators of consciousness evaluated in commercial slaughterhouses.
  • Discuss the impact of electrical key parameters on stunning efficiency.
  • Recommend ABIs and their methods of assessment (where and how to do the assessment, during how much time, how to do the sampling), and best practices,  providing video examples.

 

The webinar was attended by 70 people (86 registered), from 13 EU Member States:

Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sweden.

 

Schedule:

10:00-10:10: General presentation of the Centre - V. Michel

10:10-10:20: Indicators of consciousness - A. Velarde

10:20-10:30: Technical study - A. Contreras

10:30-10:45: Methods and recommendations - A. Varvaró and V. Michel

10:45-12:00: Discussion

 

This webinar has been organized within the sub-activity 4.3: Develop course material for specific topics, of the working program 2021-2022.