Assessing stunning factors that may impact carcase quality and animal welfare

The project will support a PhD student to research pre-, during- and post-stunning factors in commercial beef processing facilities that may influence carcase quality, meat quality and/or animal welfare; to identify the interactions of animal, process or production risk factors associated with stunning or slaughter that influence carcase or meat quality but have not been documented in published literature; and to provide evidence to support the claim that the Australian beef processing sector is continuing to improve the welfare outcomes, and minimise loss or wastage in cattle processing. The stunning technology being investigated will be high frequency electrical stunning.