Good practices in pre-slaughter and slaughter of fish

Abstract

With the growing concern to obtain quality food, allied to the aquaculture sector, which has been increasingly important in relation to technology, animal welfare focused on fish is a point that needs to be linked and integrated. The slaughter has several steps that precede, and all of them influence the final quality of the product. These steps are harvest, fasting, transportation and stunning, which can occur by different methods, which affect positively or negatively. Among the practices that are used for slaughter, it includes those that cause less suffering and better quality of meat, being, by electric shock, lethal blow to the head (with insensibiling) and bone marrow section, and those that generate suffering in fish, which are by asphyxiation (in air or ice) and thermal shock, which are the most traditional methods. Therefore, it is necessary to include welfare legislation in the slaughtering of fish, since, like other animals, fish is an animal that is aware of sensations. The objective of this review is to emphasize the importance of welfare in pre-slaughter and fish slaughtering.