What do we know about the impacts of poultry catching?

SUMMARY

The global demand for food production, especially poultry, has contributed significantly to the supply of protein. Industries, as an important link in the production chain, aim to serve the consumer market, which increasingly seeks agility, economy and quality in products and processes, especially for those related to animal and human welfare. This study highlights the context of broiler chicken catching from the animal, human, and economic welfare perspective. A systematic review about the literature was conducted in three phases: definition of the research protocol, analysis of articles selected and synthesis of the findings. After selecting descriptors/words and searching databases, inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, 40 articles were selected. The findings showed that the publications on the subject started in Europe, South Africa and North America in the 1980s. Poultry Science, with an impact factor of 2,027, published the most of the articles. The authors brought contributions in some areas, such as lesions, dead on arrival (DOA) at the slaughterhouse and consumer perception on animal welfare (AW). Finally, mechanised catching has the potential to replace manual catching, providing health and welfare benefits for animals and workers besides cost savings.

KEYWORDS:

• Broiler chickens
• carcase quality
• economic losses
• manual and mechanised catching
• working conditions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Dfl is the Dutch guilder, or fl. It was the currency of the Netherlands from the 17th century until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was supported by the Research Office of the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD). PROAP/CAPES.

Notes on contributors

Fábio Mascarenhas Dutra

Fábio Mascarenhas Dutra, Me in Agribusiness - Professor in Management, Accounting and Economics Faculty - Federal University Grande Dourados.

Rodrigo Garófallo Garcia

Rodrigo Garófallo Garcia, PhD in Animal Science - Professor in Animal Science Faculty - Federal University Grande Dourados.

Erlaine Binotto

Erlaine Binotto, PhD in Management - Professor in Management, Accounting and Economics Faculty - Federal University Grande Dourados.

Maria Fernanda de Castro Burbarelli

Maria Fernanda de Castro Burbarelli, PhD in Animal Science - Visiting Professor in Animal Science Faculty -  Federal University Grande Dourados.