Pré abate e abate de peixes: aspectos de bem-estar animal

Abstract

There has been an important increase on consumption and production of fish around the world, leading to an equal increase on the level of exigency from consumers in the matters of quality and also correct slaughtering practices, always taking animal welfare into consideration. No different than what has been observed for other species, the main debate revolves around slaughtering practices of such animals. The slaughtering process is preceded for several steps, all of such can have influence over the final product quality. Such steps are: scavenging, fasting, transportation, stunning and the slaughtering itself, which can occur by many different ways that can affect either positively or negatively the meat quality. Amongst such practices, there are some which cause less suffering and result in better meat quality, namely, those which involve faster methods adjusted for each species. Due to the absence of consensus amongst the different stunning and slaughtering methods, it is necessary to establish laws of fish slaughter, taking animal welfare into high consideration. Based on the presented scenario, the present research aimed to elaborate a literature review about the practices and techniques for slaughter and pre-slaughter steps in Brazil, emphasizing animal welfare matters.