Humane-Slaughter-Guidelines

must be positioned between the wing and tail, taking
hold firmly of both the wing and the tail. One handler
should be employed at the head where he holds the
neck-head junction while immediately putting a blindfold
or hood over the head of the ostrich. The handler
at the head must prevent injury to the soft beak as well
as interference with respiration. After hooding, ostriches
will be calm and the handler can move to the wing,
while the handler at the wing moves backwards to the
tail from where the ostrich can be steered.
Figure 18—The tongs should be placed on both sides of the head
behind the eyes and just over the outer ear openings. “X” indicates
where the electrodes should be applied to each side of the
animal’s head.
Table 4—Canadian Food Inspection Agency recommended parameters
for electrical stunning of ratites. (Adapted from CFIA.
Meat and poultry products: manual of procedures. Chapter 12,
annex A—species-specific guidelines—red meat species: ratites.
Available at: www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/meavia/man/
ch12/annexa7e.shtml. Accessed Sep 13, 2012. Reprinted with
permission.)
Birds Amperage Volts Frequency Seconds
Ostriches, rheas, and 0.12–0.4 230–300 50–60 4–6
emus (not hooded)
Ostriches, rheas, and 0.4 230–300 50–60 4–6
emus (hooded)
A shepherd’s crook is typically not required for
emus, and they do not respond well to hooding unless
they have been restrained prior to placement of the
hood. 107 Lifting the tail up and holding the head down
make it more difficult for ratites to forward kick and
injure personnel.
For lairage, it is important that all pens be round,
hexagonal, or octagonal in shape. This prevents the
birds from crowding into the corners of the pens and
injuring one another. Additionally, side walls should
be 1.7 to 2.0 m high to prevent birds from seeing distractions
outside the pen. 108 Walls should also be constructed
to handle the force of birds running or pushing
against them. 108 It should also be noted that while
ratites are flightless birds, they can jump over low fences.
108 It is important to avoid startling the birds, as they
will attempt to flee and will injure themselves and each
other. 108 Any unexpected behavior by personnel may
startle the birds and result in rapid evasive behavior.
Low light levels and minimal noise in lairage may help
birds remain quiet and calm. 108 It is best to avoid mixing
birds from different farms, as they can be become
aggressive toward one another. Water should always
be freely available to the birds during lairage. Grooved
cement floors can cause birds to slip, and metal grids
placed on top of cement can dissuade birds from settling
and lying down. A floor system that is suitable for
ratites is metal mesh (1- to 1.5-cm sided square holes)
raised above a concrete floor. 108
There are no universally agreed-upon stunning
methods for ratites. A large number of ostriches are
slaughtered annually in South Africa, and electric headonly
stunning performed with handheld tongs is the
most commonly used method. The recommended electric
stunning parameters for ostriches in South Africa
are a current of 0.4 to 0.6 A at 90 to 110 V for a duration
of 4 to 6 seconds. 106 Glatz recommends stunning
emus using 120 V at 1.2 A for 10 seconds and ostriches
using 120 V at 1.2 A for 15 seconds. 107 An electric stunning
current > 0.4 A at 50 Hz alternating current used
in head-only application prevented recovery in 90% of
ostriches when they were bled within 60 seconds. 109
The return of rhythmic breathing movements indicates
the first stages of recovery in birds following an electric
stun. 110 Effective stunning can be presumed when
epileptiform activity is seen (ie, rigidity with flexed legs
[tonic phase] followed by kicking of varied intensity
[clonic phase]). 106 The CFIA Manual of Procedures 111
includes recommendations for electric stunning (Figure
18; Table 4).
Chapter 7 of the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations Guidelines for Humane
Handling, Transport and Slaughter of Livestock 112 recommends
1.5 to 2 A and 90 V for 10 to 15 seconds for
electric stunning of ostriches.
During traditional stunning with handheld tongs,
birds are held in a restraining area by gentle pressure
applied from behind on the tail feathers. The restraining
area is often a V-shaped structure high enough that
the stunning operator is not kicked. After (or during)
stunning, the bird is rocked backward and a leg clamp
is placed over the legs, immobilizing the birds and allowing
them to be shackled. The birds are then hoisted
onto a 3.4-m rail and conveyed to an exsanguination
area. Some commercial ratite slaughter plants now use
a new restraining and stunning mechanism that completely
encompasses the bird in a padded clamp holder
that restrains the legs and body at strategic points. The
head of the bird is placed into a box where the electric
current is applied. While the bird is being electrically
stunned, the box rotates 180° so that toe clamps can be
applied without any danger to the stunning operators.
The box is then opened, and the bird is hoisted and
conveyed for exsanguination. 108
An air-powered captive needle pistol can also produce
an effective stun in birds. 113,114 When a captive
needle pistol is used, the needles should be applied at
the intersection of two imaginary lines drawn from the
ear on one side of the head to the inner corner of the
eye on the other side. 113,114 In a report to the American
Ostrich Association, the Texas Agricultural Extension
Service noted the use of a Schermer captive bolt stun-
AVMA Guidelines for the Humane Slaughter of Animals: 2016 Edition 53