P30 | Monitoring and controls to assess animal welfare conditions in a poultry slaughterhouse in the Marche region of Italy

The National Animal Welfare Plan (PNBA) establishes a series of controls to verify compliance with Legislative Decree 181/2010, which sets minimum standards for the protection of chickens reared for meat production. In addition to on-farm checks, controls are planned at the slaughterhouse, where monitoring is carried out on all batches of animals from derogated farms and on a number determined by the plan for non-derogated farms. In 2024, the Fermo Territorial Health Authority conducted checks to assess animal welfare in the poultry species at a facility with a capacity of 12,000 chickens per week, using a specifically developed checklist. The indicators considered and observed during the ante-mortem and post-mortem visits were: hygienic-sanitary conditions upon arrival, mortality during transport (DOA), hygienic-sanitary rejection rate (SIS), and footpad dermatitis (FPL). The alarm thresholds that determined a condition of compliance (C) or non-compliance (NC) were ≤1% for DOA, ≤2% for SIS, ≤100 for FPL, while for the sanitary conditions upon arrival, C/NC was assessed relative to feather condition, the presence of fecal residues, and animal injuries (e.g., fractures). Its compilation was carried out in the following cases: in animal batches arriving at the slaughterhouse with a report from the breeder of exceeding the cumulative daily mortality rate (CDMR), whenever the alert threshold for one of the indicators was exceeded, for the monitoring provided for in the 2024 PNBA. If one or more threshold limits were exceeded, the veterinarian communicated the results to the competent local authority (CLA) in the area of origin and to the animal owner, who was required to take appropriate action to restore a compliant situation in order to ensure animal welfare. In turn, the ACL can reassess the farming risk and, after three NC communications, must revoke the stocking density derogation and impose any administrative penalties. In the year under consideration, 159 batches were slaughtered; Below is the number of cases in which the form was completed, and the results obtained: - n. 28 for exceeding the TMGC (17.6%), resulting in n. 2 NCs (exceeding the FPL in one case and DOA in another); - n. 3 for the hygienic and sanitary conditions of the animals upon arrival (1.89%), with outcome n. 3 NC (non-compliance for FPL in all cases); - No. 1 for exceeding the FPL (0.62%) (No. 1 NC); - n. 3 for PNBA 2024 (1.89%), of which n. 2 controls on non-derogated farms, n. 1 on a derogated farm) (no NCs). There were 6 non-compliances (3.8% of the slaughtered batches), resulting in notification to the competent ACL and the breeder; The undersigned Service has not received any communication regarding any actions taken following the NC report. Furthermore, a check in the National Database (BDN) revealed no reports for the farms involved. It should be noted that the detected non-compliance refers to the individual shed and not the entire farm, and currently, the system allows for the update of the farm derogation, not the shed derogation. The need to improve synergy and communication between the ACLs involved is emerging, as well as a review of BDN management to improve information regarding each individual shed, in order to optimize the management of derogations.