The period from catching to stunning at slaughter determines the welfare of billions of poultry animals in their final hours. Management improvements in this phase deliver significant welfare benefit.
Pre-slaughter handling of poultry encompasses catching, transport, lairage, and stunning — a process that can last many hours and involves significant welfare risk at each stage. Water bath electrical stunning systems require birds to be hung live on shackles before stunning, causing acute stress from inversion and handling. Controlled atmosphere stunning, which delivers the stunning agent in a filled chamber before birds are shackled, eliminates live handling stress and has welfare advantages for birds. However, transition from water bath to controlled atmosphere systems requires capital investment that many facilities have been slow to make. Regulatory pressure and higher-welfare certification requirements are the primary drivers of system change.