Head-cloaca controlled current stunning: assessment of brain and heart activity and meat quality

1. Behavioural and neural responses of 65 broilers to head-to-cloaca electrical stunning were evaluated and meat quality was assessed on two groups of 25 broilers stunned either head to cloaca, or in a conventional water bath method. 2. On the EEG recordings, a general epileptiform insult was observed when applying a current of 100¿mA (100¿Hz) or 70¿mA (70¿Hz) for 1·5¿s. This general epileptiform insult shows a tonic, clonic and exhaustion phase followed by spikes of alpha, beta, theta and delta waves with duration of on average 34¿±¿12¿s and 39¿±¿23¿s respectively. These birds may have been unconscious for 20¿s or longer, according to the correlation dimension analyses. 3. The heart rate decreased significantly (P