Stunning of pigs at slaughter constitutes of primarily two methods; carbon dioxide and electricity. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages from an animal welfare point of view. The purpose of this study is to compare different methods of stunning pigs from a welfare point of view. Questions included in the study are 1) What differences are there, from an animal welfare point of view, between CO2 and electricity as methods for stunning pigs? 2) What alternatives are there to the methods currently in use? 3) Which method for stunning pigs is preferable from an animal welfare point of view?This report is a literature review.

The study concerns the unloading of pigs at the slaughter house, both from the pigs view and from the transporters view. The study has been carried out at the slaughter house (SLP) in Helsingborg, Sweden. It includes a questionnaire to all transporters (65 % response) and a direct observation of the unloading. The transporters handling of the pigs, their use of different equipment and the response of the pigs has been studied. The pigs behaviour at unloading and their reactions to environmental factors has also been studied.

Slaughter of animals should consist of two steps in order to be considered humane. The first step of the slaughter process is stunning, with the purpose of inducing unconsciousness and insensibility in the animal. The second step is exsanguination, which causes bleeding and eventually death. What death really means in these situations has been discussed intensively, but still no agreed definition has been accepted. Nonetheless, it is conceded that animals are declared dead when consciousness is irreversibly lost, and absence of respiration and blood circulation are observed.

I have done a case-study about building a new stable for slaughter pigs at a farm close to Kalmar. The farm is able to supply the breeding with cereals and it has enough area to spread the manure on. The most important factors to gain profit, is the cost for building the stable, the price of the feeding-stuff and the growth of the pigs. The discount from the slaughter-house was less important than I thought from the beginning, and it?s a factor that is hard to influence. With the new production of slaughter-pig and cattle that already exist on the farm, the farm will get a well-functioned rotation of crops with lye and autumn rape as interruption-crop.

Electrical stunning is the method that has been used in Sweden to stun broilers prior to slaughter. However, for reasons of animal welfare and meat quality, research has been made in the EU to develop new stunning methods. Gas stunning is now regarded as the best alternative. In this study literature has been reviewed with focus on different gas stunning systems and observations have been made at two different slaughterhouses regarding animal welfare before, during and directly after stunning. At one slaughter plant carbondioxide was used in a two-stage system where the birds were standing on a conveyer belt during the stunning procedure.

Individual identification of pigs could be used in commercial herds for production monitoring, disease monitoring and breeding evaluation. This study investigates the possibility of using microchips designed for dogs and cats to identify individual pigs from birth, through rearing to carcass at the slaughter plant. Two different sizes of microchips, and two different ages of the pigs at injection were tested. Castrates and gilts from ten litters were evenly distributed between chip sizes and injection ages. All pigs were identity marked with both electronic ear tags and injected with microchips.

In 2007 Swedish Meats, the dominant Swedish meat-producers cooperative sold its slaughtering and processing industry. The goal of a producer cooperative structure is to create value for members through vertical integration, and to strengthen members? market position. When Swedish Meats sold the slaughtering and processing components, it ceased in some respects to serve the function of a cooperative. This is a lost opportunity for both members and non-members, because Swedish Meats as a functioning cooperative could have exploited its dominant market position to positively effect producer?s prices.

In 2007 Swedish Meats, the dominant Swedish meat-producers cooperative sold its slaughtering and processing industry. The goal of a producer cooperative structure is to create value for members through vertical integration, and to strengthen members? market position. When Swedish Meats sold the slaughtering and processing components, it ceased in some respects to serve the function of a cooperative. This is a lost opportunity for both members and non-members, because Swedish Meats as a functioning cooperative could have exploited its dominant market position to positively effect producer?s prices.

The fact that animals have feelings is something that is commonly agreed. Many authors showhow animals' views of their environment is quite similar with human views. Animals, whichare slaughtered without prior stunning, find the moment of slaughter unpleasant and stressing.This is shown in numerous of scientific studies. The cognitive ability of animals can becompared to how they experience feelings and scientists have shown how the structures in thebrain that involves feelings and cognitive behaviours in animals are very much the same asthe structures in human brains. Because of this, some scientists consider that behaviour inanimals can be directly interpreted into human feelings.Halal- and kosher slaughter comes from traditions.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate animal welfare situation in Ethiopia during slaughter and to investigate chain activities between animal markets and Kera abattoir in Addis Abeba. In total, 442 animals were observed within 52 groups of cattle; both ox and calves with different breeds. The study was divided into four different sets of data collection; behavioural observations, recording of slaughter process, observation during transport and interview. During the behavioural observations, an ethogram was used with 46 behaviours observed, categorised into 5 different groups. The data was calculated using Excel and SAS. The results indicated that a significant correlation (p-value.

Today, pigs are moved on farm, between farms, between countries and to abattoirs. This movement of live pigs requires handling practices that are designed for the purpose. The objective of this study was to research the use of paddle in moving pigs, to investigate if there were different methods of paddle practice, explore the time efficiency of different kinds of paddle use and if there were any time variations in methods that varied in intensity of touch. This study was done on two Swedish abattoirs for a total of five weeks. A total of 22 transporters working at two different abattoirs where studied during unloading of pigs at the abattoirs.

Live exports of animals began during the late 19th century and are nowadays a valuable alternative to the slaughter industry in Australia. About four million sheep and half a million to one million cattle are exported annually from Australia to the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Most of these animals are exported for slaughter, but some cattle are exported with the purpose of breeding. One factor that has been the driving force for the live export industry is that countries through tariffs and other barriers have favored the import of live animals rather than the import of meat.The export means that animals with a great cognitive ability are exposed to a long chain of production from the farm to the market and there are many factors that can affect the welfare of the animals in a negative way. Some of the most serious are high temperatures and a high stocking density, although seasickness, noises and handling can also have a negative impact on the welfare of animals.

Beef production in Sweden has traditionally been about rearing of dairy calves to slaughter. With reduced number of dairy cows and accordingly less dairy calves for slaughter, there has been a need for new forms of beef production in Sweden. In Västerbotten there are good conditions for beef production with a high feeding level of roughage due to favourable climate. The aim of this thesis is to, through interviews with ten farmers with beef production in Västerbotten, study what and with how much they feed their animals and link the results to production level. The thesis begins with a literature review where the general feeding standards and feeding recommendations for beef cows and growing cattle are examined.

Sweden?s animal legislation was adopted in 1988 and is one of the most rigorous legislations in the world. Despite this, Sweden import beef from countries where animal legislation is not in accordance to the Swedish legislation. The meat consumption in Sweden has, just like the importation of beef, increased while Sweden?s own beef production has decreased.

The aims with the project were to investigate how forage consumption affect production and pigs behaviour around the feeding. This degree project was designed to follow 48 growing/finishing Hampshire*Yorkshire pigs, from 30-110 kg live weight, fed diets with or without 20 % forage inclusion. The pigs were divided in three groups due to dietary treatment. In the first group the pigs were fed 20 % of the energy in the feed ration by long grass/clover silage (LE) and the remaining 80 % by a cereal concentrate. Group two was fed chopped grass/clover silage mixed with cereal concentrate (HE) in the same amounts as LE.