Birds: Slaughterhouses

(asked on 3rd July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many recorded instances or reports from official veterinarians there have been of birds entering the next stage of production while still showing signs of consciousness in slaughterhouses in England and Wales in each of the last five years.


Answered by
Seema Kennedy Portrait
Seema Kennedy
This question was answered on 12th July 2019

The following table shows by reporting year the number of instances that official veterinarians have recorded enforcement action following an incident when stunning was considered to be ineffective in poultry slaughterhouses:

Reporting Year

Instances where stunning deemed ineffective

April 2014 – March 2015

23

April 2015 – March 2016

8

April 2016 – March 2017

3

April 2017 – March 2018

12

April 2018 – March 2019

4

The business operator must implement systems to ensure stunning is efficient. There must be Standard Operating Procedures in place which specify the action to be taken when birds show signs of consciousness or sensibility after the stunning procedure. Instances of birds identified and dealt with by the Business Operator in accordance to their own procedures will not be recorded by the official veterinarian.

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