Electrical and gas stunning of poultry at slaughter requires monitoring to ensure effective unconsciousness before killing, with significant welfare consequences when stunning fails.
Poultry stunning welfare depends on effective unconsciousness being achieved and maintained until death. Electrical water-bath stunning at current parameters that ensure unconsciousness of all birds requires careful calibration and monitoring. Controlled atmosphere stunning using inert gases achieves more consistent unconsciousness but CO2-based systems cause an aversive experience before unconsciousness that raises welfare concerns. Post-stun monitoring to detect consciousness before killing is a critical welfare control point. The welfare consequences of stunning failure are severe - a conscious bird entering hot water experiences extreme suffering that monitoring and immediate response must prevent.