INFLUÊNCIA DO BEM-ESTAR NO MANEJO PRÉ-ABATE DE FRANGOS DE CORTE SOBRE A INCIDÊNCIA DE CONDENAÇÕES DE CARCAÇAS

Abstract

Brazil is currently the second largest producer and the largest exporter of chicken meat in the world, however, in the last three years, the country has shown a drop in exports, due to the greater competitiveness of the market. Research points to this drop as a consequence of greater demands on meat quality and the guarantee of animal welfare (BEA) in general. It is of fundamental importance, studies about tools and strategies that guarantee this BEA, to minimize losses in industries and increase their competitiveness. And thus serve even the most demanding markets. With this in mind, a study was carried out in a poultry slaughterhouse in the interior of Goiás, in order to identify and quantify the benefits and losses that are avoided when there is a well-executed management that complies with the rules of animal welfare and humane slaughter. The results of the work and the strategies described, will be of great value to all producers, farmers in the poultry sector, as well as to supervisors and field technicians, from slaughterhouses, who work in the sector. In addition to serving as instructional and information material, for students or others interested in the subject, as such results will show the efficiency of pre-slaughter handling, in the quality and final yield of the carcasses. Recently, this topic has been the subject of numerous studies and analyzes by different researchers, who investigate the effectiveness of pre-slaughter management and identify it as the bottleneck for profitable and quality production (DIAS et al., 2017; SAKAMOTO, 2017; NERY, 2016; MUCHON, 2018; FALAT et al., 2017; MENDES, 2017). According to Mello (2014), the fasting and harvesting phases of birds are considered to be the main responsible for the carcass involvement, when inadequate handling is carried out in this period before slaughter.