About 10 years ago the DMRI introduced a new semiautomatic
system for CO2 stunning of pigs in groups. This is an example of an
automated solution that also improves the animal welfare because
the systemallows the pigs to move in groups which is in accordance
with their natural instinct. Itmakes the pigsmove smoothly and quietly
and yet fast enough to supply line speeds up to 830 pigs per hour.
Technologies for the automatic scalding, singeing, scraping and
polishing have been available for several years. So on a modern unclean
slaughter line only the shackling, sticking and gambrelling
needs to be performed manually. In the future also the shackling
and gambrelling may be automated while presumably the sticking
will still require an operator for animal welfare reasons. New tools
will, however, facilitate correct sticking and vision systems have
been implemented for automatic monitoring that sticking has been
performed correctly.