Modern Abattoir

A modern abattoir is a purpose-built site and structure where animals are slaughtered under scientific and hygienic conditions to produce animal products for human consumption. Cattle, buffalo, mutton, poultry, swine and other animals are processed, with the facility laid out in accordance with the notification of the National Committee on Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards.

The plant is organised as a sequence of distinct sections. Animals arrive at a roofed reception area where they are identified, handled and sorted, with a 1.2 m high off-loading dock to avoid injury during offloading; healthy animals move on to the lairage while sick and injured animals are isolated. In the lairage, animals are rested for up to 24 hours to recover from the physiological stress of transportation. Stunning renders the animal immobile or unconscious at the start of slaughter, after which the slaughtering and bleeding area holds animals until bleeding is complete, followed by flaying (removal of the hide or skin), evisceration (removal of the internal organs) and inspection to prevent and detect public health hazards. Stations carry platforms at appropriate positions and heights, and overhead rail dressing secures the basic requirements of hygienic conditions during slaughter and dressing associated with the floor.

Downstream sections include edible and inedible offals rooms — the inedible room sits adjacent to the flaying point with a chute-like provision for dropping intestine and stomach — a hide and skin store where salted skin is kept until shipment with a primary treatment of dry salt on the inner surface to extend shelf life, and a cold room where fresh meat is chilled immediately after post-mortem examination and held at no more than 7°C for carcasses and cuts or 3°C for offal. A veterinary office and laboratory diagnoses diseases and maintains sanitary standards, personnel facilities provide washbasins, toilet rooms, changing rooms and first-aid rooms, and a manure bay near the effluent treatment plant retains dung and ingesta under pest and vermin-free conditions. Because slaughterhouses produce large volumes of wastewater with a high organic matter load, every service abattoir must have an effluent treatment plant with sufficient capacity to treat liquid waste.

Architectural planning is settled before design begins: a site away from residential areas, room for future growth (3-4 acres for slaughtering 500 sheep each day), sufficient separation between clean and unclean sections, the maximum number and type of animals to be slaughtered per day, a drainage system with proper slope, and good ventilation and exhaust. Hygienic meat production is achievable only when animals are slaughtered in a sanitary manner and post-slaughter contamination is controlled, with operations based on Good hygiene practices (GHP), Good manufacturing practices (GMP) and Hazard analysis critical control point.