TIGER

This project focuses on CO2 stunning of pigs in the context of improving farm animal welfare at slaughter. Although the animals can be stunned in groups, high concentration CO2 stunning leads to aversion, respiratory distress and flight attempts during the induction phase. The aim of this project was to investigate the use of alternative gases or gas mixtures for stunning of slaughter pigs, which induces less aversive behavior. Additionally, a sufficiently long period of insensibility and unconsciousness must be ensured until the death after sticking. A number of studies have already been carried out in this context, where some have reported adverse effects of the use of alternative gases or gas mixtures on meat quality (particularly hemorrhages when using argon and argon-nitrogen mixtures), however these effects are not fully understood. In broad-based studies of the influence of the used stunning gas on meat quality will provide comparable results regarding meat quality. This meets consumer expectations for animal welfare and high-quality meat products. By using a newly developed gassing technology, the gases and gas mixtures can be used in standard gas stunning systems, like dip-lift and paternoster systems. Due to the limited scope of retrofitting existing systems, a fast and economical implementation of the new gas stunning methods in practice and thus an accelerated transfer of knowledge from research to practice after the end of the project seems feasible.

Project partners:


Running time:
1.07.2020 - 31.08.2024

Förderkennzeichen:
2817803B18

Funding reference number:


The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag, with additional financial support from the German Meat Industry Association, the QS Science Fund of QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH and the Society for the Promotion of Meat Research.