At the 2023 Animal Care and Handling Conference, Dr. Dianna Bourassa, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at Auburn University provided a perspective on controlled atmosphere stunning. Currently 90 percent of U.S. poultry plants apply electric stunning using either AC or pulsed DC water-bath equipment. Controlled atmosphere stunning using carbon dioxide is applied at ten percent of U.S. plants.
Following E.U. welfare standards, some retailers that are subsidiaries of multinational chains and supermarkets are specifying controlled environment stun-to-kill since this eliminates the need for shackling.
Dr. Bourassa stated, “We do not have enough processing plants in the United States with gas stunning systems to produce enough chicken for all customers.” She added, “Something is going to happen in the next couple of years: there’s going to be a push away from gas stunning or adoption. Let’s see what happens”.