Scientific review on killing spent laying hens on the farm. CO2 in a mobile container or stable gassing?
September 2015: In Sweden, spent laying hens are killed either by traditional slaughter; on-farm with CO2 in a mobile container combined with a grinder; or with CO2 stable gassing inside the barn. The number of hens killed using the latter method has increased. During these killings a veterinarian is required to be present and report to the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
Data were registered during four commercial killings and extracted from all official veterinary reports at CO2 whole-house killings in 2008–2010. On-farm monitoring showed that temperature decreased greatly and with high variability.
The time until birds became unconscious after coming into contact with the gas, based on time until loss of balance, was 3–5 min.
Animal welfare
Veterinary reports show that 1.5 million laying hens were killed, in 150 separate instances. The most common non-compliance with legislation was failure to notify the regional animal welfare authorities prior to the killings. Six out of 150 killings were defined as animal welfare failures, eg delivery of insufficient CO2 or failure to seal buildings to achieve adequate gas concentration. Eleven were either potentially or completely unacceptable from the perspective of animal welfare.
This study shows that there are grounds for concern regarding the latter. However, there remain several risks to animal welfare and increased knowledge would appear vital in order to limit mistakes related to miscalculations of house volume, improper sealing or premature ventilation turn-off.
There are aspects of animal welfare that should be taken into account: concerning the use of CO2 in the barn to euthanize spent method of killing itself, which have been studied extensively (e.g. Sandilands et al 2011; McKeegan et al 2012; Turner et al 2012); besides, the hazard to welfare when the method is performed on a larger scale, commercially, and the legislation or standard operating procedures for the euthanasia are not adhered to.
