Meat+Poultry - April 2023 - 78

FROM THE CORRAL
Stunning controversy
In early February, the animal activist
group Direct Action Everywhere,
posted undercover video footage online
of the reaction of pigs to CO2 stunning.
An activist named Raven Deerbrook
snuck into the Farmer John pork plant
in Los Angeles in October 2022. She
placed a miniature video camera in
the shaft of the CO2 stunner. The video
definitely showed that some of the pigs
were having a bad reaction and were
attempting to escape.
I have looked into these chambers
many times. I have observed that
some pigs have a very mild reaction to
controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS)
and others go berserk and attempt to
escape. Years ago, I visited the Danish
Meat Research Institute in Roskilde,
Denmark. I watched Danish pigs in
a CO2 chamber in their research lab.
These pigs had a very calm reaction.
In this system, it was easy to see the
pigs walking around in 90% CO2. They
backed up a little bit and then fell
over and lost the ability to stand. After
they fell over and lost posture, they
became unconscious. In other plants,
I have seen reactions that were worse
than the Direct Action Everywhere
video footage. The differences in the
pig's reaction were probably due to
genetics. One factor could be that the
Danish pigs were completely free of
the PSS Porcine Stress Gene. It is likely
that there are other genetic factors, in
addition to the PSS gene.
PIG GENOMICS AND
CO2 STUNNING
Just before COVID shut everything
down, I had a project all set-up to
have one of my graduate students
do genomic testing on the pigs that
reacted calmly to CO2 compared to
the pigs that had a bad reaction. My
hypothesis was that bad reactions to
CO2 could almost be eliminated by
selective breeding. My student worked
very closely with a large plant. The
management team was very interested
in looking at pig genetics. She had Go
Pro cameras and lights installed in
their CO2 machine and a reasonably
priced genomics test had been located.
Several days before the project was
going to start, the managers of the pig
farm who owned the plant cancelled
the project. They did not want to look
inside the box. After this happened, no
other plant was willing to participate in
this project. I want to compliment the
forward-thinking plant management
who were totally behind doing this
research. One of the top managers
who we worked with now has a new
job in the beef industry. The pig farm
managers who cancelled my project
were extremely short sighted. Now,
the Direct Action Everywhere video
may force the industry to look inside
the box.
When the CO2 system is being
evaluated, both the stress of handling
and the stress of stunning must be
considered. Group CO2 systems have
really good, low-stress pig handling,
and electric prods can be totally
eliminated. To stun pigs with electricity
in a large plant requires lining pigs up
in a single file alley. Total elimination
of electric prods in this system is not
possible. Electrical stunning produces
instantaneous insensibility. In large
plants, an electric prod will have to
be used on about 15% of pigs. Where I
draw the line on an acceptable tradeoff
between improved handling versus
the stress of anesthesia induction is
when pigs actually attempt to escape
form the gondola where the CO2 is
administered. The industry needs to
address this issue.
TEMPLE GRANDIN | meatpoult r y@sos land.com
Now, the Direct Action Everywhere
video may force the industry
to look inside the box.
78 MEAT+POULTRY | 04.23 | www.meatpoultry.com
Rosalie Winard; Роман Мельник - stock.adobe.com
http://www.meatpoultry.com
Meat+Poultry - April 2023

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