FSIS Clarifies Guidance on Fatigued Hogs

February 17, 2009 — 

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has clarified the actions to be taken by its inspection personnel regarding the disposition of fatigued swine in the processing facility.

In response to a question regarding the humane handling of "slow" swine, the FSIS gave the following guidance to its inspection personnel:

• All swine on the premises are to be handled humanely
• Fatigued hogs, defined as those swine that are ambulatory and otherwise bright, alert and normal but moving slower than their cohort group, may be walked to a holding pen for ante mortem inspection if they can be moved in a humane manner. If these otherwise normal animals are lying down or being knocked down they should be segregated and protected from the rest of the group to avoid any inhumane handling.
• A processing facility may elect to establish written protocols for handling fatigued swine. Such protocols may allow for the humane movement of these animals along with the rest of their incoming group or segregation into pens of fatigued hogs from several incoming groups. These fatigued animals may then be moved humanely to the stunning area or humanely stunned in the pen and moved directly to the sticking area. All incoming animals must be inspected ante mortem.
• Any abnormal animals (i.e. injured, stressed, sore feet, etc.) must continue to be segregated from the normal animals and placed in the US Suspect pen for ante mortem inspection.

Sources:
FSIS
Pork Magazine's Pork Alert, February 17, 2009