Quality assurance | Animal welfare

New versions of the NZFAP standards come out in January 2023. We have highlighted some of the main changes to Animal welfare – Chapter 4.

Debudding and dehorning

• Caustic or chemical technique can not be used.
• No animal can be debudded or dehorned – irrespective of age – without pain relief.

Water and nutrition

• All livestock must receive sufficient qualities of food, water, nutrients, so they can maintain good health.
• Any changes to the diet must be introduced at a rate that allows the animal to adapt to the new feed.

Emergency slaughter definition:

The euthanising of animals that are injured or have a disease associated with severe pain or suffering and where there is no other practical possibility to alleviate this pain or suffering.

If you must carry out an emergency slaughter, you must euthanise (stun) the animal with a bullet/captive bolt before bleeding wherever possible. In doing so you should take into consideration the distance/time to retrieve the stun equipment and whether the time delay will result in unnecessary suffering of the animal.

Animal Welfare is always the top priority when making this decision.

For housed animals there is a reasonable expectation that a stunning method should be available. Where the delay to retrieve stun equipment would cause unnecessary suffering, the animal should be subjected to emergency slaughter as humanely as possible without stunning.

For any questions, please contact us via qaadmin@anzcofoods.com.