STUNNING : Electrical Stunning

Electrical stunning is used all over the world to render animals, including poultry, unconscious before slaughter that lasts until exsanguination results in death. The basic physiological principle of electrical stunning is to administer sufficient electric current through the head of an animal so that a generalized epileptiform activity is induced in the brain. The observed behavior is characterized by a phase of tonic muscle spasm followed by clonic muscle spasms and ultimately an exhaustion phase with muscle flaccidity. Electrical parameters have been reported to have a different effect on postmortem rigor development and subsequent meat quality