The slaughterhouse comes to the animals instead of the opposite

Researchers at SLU's Department of Animal Environment and Health have participated in the development of a mobile slaughterhouse and recently Europe's first mobile abattoir for slaughter of large cattle was started by the company Hälsingestintan.

- The background is that the slaughter of cattle usually is done by transporting the animals by car to fewer and larger slaughterhouses where an increasing share of the animals stay overnight before they are slaughtered. The result is that animal welfare and meat quality is adversely affected by the stress that arises in connection with the drive of animals during transport and the handling of the animals in for them unknown and often noisy premises, says Bo Algers, Professor at SLU.

Consumers are increasingly demanding meat of good quality, as well as better animal welfare. One way to achieve this might be to take the slaughterhouse to the animals instead of vice versa.

The project “Mobile Slaughter and Stunning of Outdoor Cattle” is performed in cooperation with Hälsingestintan. The project has several parts

• comparing animal welfare and meat quality in conventional and mobile slaughter;
• to study the possibilities of stunning and bleeding on the farm for slaughter in the local abattoir and
• to study the possibilities of using modern image transmission and image analysis in connection with the veterinary inspection.

The researchers are also involved in several projects to examine the possibility of stunning and bleeding the cattle on the farm in order and thereafter transport the carcasses on to a local stationary slaughterhouse.

Participators in the project are from SLU's Department of Animal Environment and Health Associate are Professor Jan Hultgren (project coordinator), Associate Professor Lotta Berg, Associate Professor Anna Hessle, graduate student Sophie Atkinson, PhD Katrin Schiffer and Professor Bo Algers.