Pathological manifestations observed in dead-on-arrival broilers at a Danish abattoir

1. The mortality of broilers during pre-slaughter handling, including harvesting and transport, is an issue of increasing public concern which has led to the adoption of Council Directive EC/43/2007 implementing abattoir surveillance regarding the number of dead-on-arrival (DOA) broilers.2. Patholog...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:British poultry science 2013-08, Vol.54 (4), p.430-440
Main Authors: Lund, V.P, Kyvsgaard, N.C, Christensen, J.P, Bisgaard, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abattoirs
Animal Husbandry
animal injuries
Animal Welfare
Animals
Chickens
Cross-Sectional Studies
death
Denmark
discoloration
flocks
harvesting
kidney diseases
monitoring
mortality
Poultry Diseases - mortality
Poultry Diseases - pathology
Risk Assessment
septicemia
slaughterhouses
Transportation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:1. The mortality of broilers during pre-slaughter handling, including harvesting and transport, is an issue of increasing public concern which has led to the adoption of Council Directive EC/43/2007 implementing abattoir surveillance regarding the number of dead-on-arrival (DOA) broilers.2. Pathological lesions and causes of death of DOA broilers at a Danish abattoir were investigated in a cross-sectional study comprising 300 DOA broilers (25 broilers from each of 12 randomly selected flocks). Major pathological manifestations of DOA broilers included severe pulmonary congestion (51.5%), lung congestion in combination with trauma (12.5%), trauma (10.2%), nephropathy accompanied by dehydration and/or discolouration (8.8%), morbus cordis (2.0%), septicaemia (1.7%) and suspected septicaemia (1.0%). Lung congestion accompanied by circulatory disturbances in other tissues was suggested to be due to suffocation.3. Analyses of pathological diagnoses revealed that DOA broilers can be divided into two main categories, lung congestion and trauma, based on the chronicity of the lesions, both of which are primarily related to management and handling procedures. Most DOA broilers examined (74.2%) were estimated to have died as a consequence of events during pre-slaughter handling underlining the importance of increased focus on handling-related factors to reduce DOA rate.
ISSN:1466-1799
0007-1668
1466-1799
DOI:10.1080/00071668.2013.804173