Our Key to Success: Good Animal Husbandry Practices & Good Slaughtering Practices

After reviewing several documents from Vietnam and abroad, looking at existing free-range poultry supply chains in Vietnam, Europe and USA and discussing information provided by the project’s supply chains, we have come up with a final draft version of two documents entitled:

• Guidelines on Good Animal Husbandry Practices (GAHP) for free-range chickens
• Guidelines on Good Slaughtering Practices (GSP) for small-scale poultry slaughterhouses

• A maximal density of chickens per meter square
• The use of a slow-growth breed
• The obligation to let the chickens go outside everyday in a fenced yard
• Adequate level of biosecurity
• Supervision by a licensed veterinarian of all batches of chickens
• Use of feed that does not contain ingredients that are harmful for consumers
• Protection of the environment
• Animal welfare
• Data recording to enable inspection and to indicate traceability (use of the Batch Recording Book)
• Minimal age of chickens before slaughtering
• The stunning of live chickens before bleeding
• The disinfection procedures in slaughterhouses
• The use of white tiles on walls and floor of the slaughterhouses for better indication of its cleanliness
• The avoidance of cross-contaminations between workers, chickens, carcasses …

People in the supply chains (farmers, technicians, slaughterers) are being advised by the STOP AI team on how to implement these guidelines. Then, our team conducts field visits (during the day for farms and during nights for slaughterhouses) to check the level of compliance with these guidelines. These inspection visits are essential to ensure that adequate measures are taken to reach a high level of compliance but also to ensure that once compliance is met, then bad practices do not come up again!