Technical assistance to the Commission (Article 31 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002) for the preparation of a data collection system of welfare indicators in EU broilers’ slaughterhouses

Abstract

Council Directive 2007/43/EC on the protection of chickens kept for meat production requires Member States to submit to the Commission the results of a data collection of welfare indicators in broiler slaughterhouses. The Commission prepared a draft document for a harmonised data collection system of welfare indicators in broiler slaughterhouses for a one-year period and requested EFSA to assess whether the sample size chosen in the document would be sufficient to achieve the objectives of the data collection. The structure of the population as well as possible stratification factors influence the sampling protocol of a data collection. In this case, the sampling should occur in each Member State at three levels: i) at slaughterhouses; ii) at flocks within each sampled slaughterhouse and iii) at broilers and feet within each sampled flock. Based on the methodological approach developed for this mandate, the assessment shows that for 15 MS, 1% of the total number of flocks slaughtered in one year is not a sufficient sample to assess 1% prevalence of the given conditions. For 3 MS, 1% sample is sufficient depending on the combination number of flocks and broilers/feet chosen. For 1 MS, when any combination is used, 1% of flocks slaughtered is a sufficient sample to assess prevalence of 1%. A general approach for designing and ensuring representativeness of sampling plans in MS was proposed. The recommended sampling scheme better fitting for this data collection is a three stage sampling scheme, where the selection of the unit at each level could be based on established criteria. Finally, in the case an EU harmonised data collection is implemented in the future, it is recommended to submit the collected data in a harmonised way through the EFSA Data Collection Framework. This report proposes a possible data model for the submission of the data. SUMMARYArt 6(2) of Council Directive 2007/43/EC 4 laying down minimum rules for the protection of chickens kept for meat production requires Member States (MS) to submit to the Commission the results of the data collection based on the monitoring of a representative sample of flocks slaughtered during a minimum period of one year. The sampling and data collected, as referred to in Annex III of the Directive, should be scientifically based, objective and allow for a comparative analysis. The data to be collected at slaughterhouse is on welfare indicators, for the assessment of the welfare on farm of broilers raised in that MS according to Council Directive 2007/43/EC.The Commission has prepared a draft document proposing a harmonised data collection system of welfare indicators in broiler slaughterhouses. The main objective is to achieve an overall picture in the EU and in each of the 27 MS of the welfare of broilers, in particular detecting those welfare conditions, such as contact dermatitis, systematic illness and mortality, which occur at 1% or greater at EU level. The Commission draft document for the data collection foresees to stratify the sample in two catego...

Welfare of broilers on farm

“…A scoring system of 0–2 had already been developed (Ekstrand et al., 1998 ; Berg and Algers, 2004 ; Welfare Quality Network, 2019 ). However, as part of work related to the Implementation of Article 6.2 of Council Directive 2007/42/EC 20 more details on the assessment rules for each level were proposed and slightly revised definitions were suggested by EFSA (EFSA, 2013 ). These revised definitions were based on research on the 0–2 scoring system and another scoring system with a 5‐point scale (Michel et al., 2012 ).…”

“…It should be noted that feet can be scored from birds on the moving line or scored later, e.g. from a box, after the feet have been separated from the bird (EFSA, 2013 ).…”

Discontinuous Economic Growing Quantity Inventory Model

“…However, within the context of industrial agriculture scenarios, Nobil et al [24] and Nobil et al [26] mentioned that slaughter plants kill animals in a limited predetermined age range. However, the European Food Safety Authority [29] states that there exists a disparity between the United States and European countries in terms of typical slaughter ages, with the former commonly observing a slaughter age of 47 days, while the latter adheres to a slaughter age of 42 days. Moreover, Park et al [30] mentioned that the slaughter age should be at least 30 days.…”