Development of integrated solution for pre-slaughtering stunning of cultured fish through eletronarcosis

• Grant number: 17/10093-7
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: April 01, 2018
• End date: April 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Fishery Resources and Fishery Engineering - Aquaculture
• Principal Investigator: Sheyla Cristina Vargas Baldi
• Grantee: Sheyla Cristina Vargas Baldi
• Company: Agertek Indústria e Comércio de Estruturas Eireli - ME
• CNAE: Atividades de apoio à pecuária
• City: São Paulo
• Associated researchers: Elisabete Maria Macedo Viegas
• Associated research grant(s): 18/20534-3 - Development of integrated solution for pre-slaughter stunning of cultured fish with eletronarcosis, AP.PIPE
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/08093-1 - Development of an integrated solution for pre-slaughtering of pre-slaughtered fish cultured through eletronarcosis, BP.PIPE

Abstract

Currently cultured fish in Brazil are stunned by hypothermia in solution of water and ice or asphyxiated in ice. Both processes cause prolonged suffering to the animals as they may require more than 60 minutes to cause numbness. In addition, intense leakage during the stunning process leads to a decrease in the quality of the product, since there is depletion of muscle glycogen stores, compromising the rigor mortis process, which is decisive for the determination of fish shelf life. In European countries and at the United States the demand for humanitarian processes in fish production is increasing and tends to become limiting in the commercialization of these products, as with terrestrial animals. In Brazil, despite the great capacity of growth in this market, the concepts of welfare are still not linked to the productive processes, mainly because they are unknown to the consumers and the current legislation. It is a consensus in the academic community, nationally and internationally, that high-frequency eletronarcosis is an effective method for stunning fish because it causes rapid numbing and maintains adequate parameters of quality. The aim of this work is to produce an integrated solution for cultivated fish stunning through high frequency eletronarcosis, capable of rendering the animals insensitive to pain in the moments preceding the slaughter in an efficient and fast manner, in accordance with the animal welfare precepts and promoting higher quality to the final product and that fits the continental, inshore and offshore fish farming projects practiced in Brazil. (AU)