Poultry abattoir survey of carcass condemnation for standard, vegetarian, and free range chickens.

During the period April 1991 to March 1992, data concerning the condemnation rate of standard, vegetarian, and free-range chickens were collected and summarized from one federally inspected abattoir in Ontario. The purpose of this study was to discuss the effects of diet, management, and breed of chickens on pathological lesions, ensuing condemnation rates, and consequent losses to the growers and the poultry industry. The data collected at this abattoir revealed that vegetarian chickens showed a higher condemnation rate (5.23%) for disease and nondisease conditions compared with standard (1.48%) and free-range (0.94%) chickens. Free-range chickens were approximately two weeks older than vegetarian and standard chickens at the time of slaughter. The most common causes of condemnation in vegetarian chickens was cellulitis (1.18%), followed by ascites (0.77%). Ascites and cellulitis (0.26% both) were also the most common causes of condemnation in standard chickens. Cyanosis (0.21%) and mutilation (0.17%) represented the highest rate of condemnation in free-range chickens. The low rate of pathological lesions in free-range chickens is a positive trend in poultry disease management.