BULE HORA UNIVERSITY

COLLAGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES

SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

Course Name
Veterinary Public Health I (VPH I)
Semester I

Topic: Abattoir Construction

By
Dr. Fuad M.
(DVM, MSc, Assistant Professor in VPH)

December, 2022
BHU
 INTRODUCTION
ABATTOIR
Is also known as Slaughter house
It is a facility where animals are killed and processed in to meet products for human
consumption

Objectives of construction
Produce wholesome and sound meat
Protect the public from zoonotic disease
Prevent the out spread of epizootics
Protect the environment from pollution
Utilize economically slaughter house by products
 SETTING UP AN ABATTOIR

Things to be considered before planning an abattoir:

The maximum daily slaughter of each class of animal should be determined
Proper disposal and treatment of the edible and inedible by-products
The actual system of operation - be determined, bearing in mind the local conditions.
To decide whether it is a complete meat processing plant
an abattoir adapted solely for slaughter and dressing.

A regular full-time skilled slaughter men to deal with all kinds of livestock.
The abattoir should be constructed considering the:
 livestock population,
 type of livestock,
 marketing facilities and socio-economic conditions of the local area.
 SITE SELECTION: Location

 The essential considerations to be bear in mind while selecting a site for the construction of a
slaughter house are:
Available of sufficient land for expansion
Accessibility by road and rail transport
Water and Supply of electricity
Facility for sewage disposal
Proximity for supply of labour
Proximity to regular supply of resource animals
Social and religious background of the local habitants

Environmental Assessment (EA)

•It considers the outputs to the environment, during the construction phase and from the plant in
normal operation. In the case of meat plant the following are considered
Effect of increased traffic movements in the locality
Noise and dust during construction phase 
Operational noise 
Odour 
Emission of combustion gases 
Waste water disposal.
 EA must be carried out before commissioning the project
 Selection of Site
The site to be selected should
Be located outside the city or town, in a place, which will not soon become an abode of
habitation. Like: The rural site

Be of such size as to allow for future expansion

Be on an elevated plane to facilitate better natural drainage and prevent water stagnation.
Be in a direction in which wind passes out from dwellings

 If the prevailing winds are north/south, the abattoir should be built to the east or west of the town.
 The land could be landscaped and planted with trees, to provide windbreaks, shade and shelter, if not to
make the building more attractive
Be accessible from all parts of the city or town
 Selection of Site
The site to be selected should
Be provided with rail tracks for receipt of animals by railways
Be within reach of the highway
Have permeable soil and suitable for good foundations including piling.
 Arable farmland should not be chosen, as it may be a waste of productive land for the cultivation of crops
may be subject to drift of crop spraying chemicals.
Have ample water supply for washing, etc., at an estimated requirement of 150 gallons per
animal slaughtered or 10,000 litres/tonne of dressed carcass weight
Enjoy unhindered ventilation and light
Ability to separate ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ areas and access,
Proximity to supply of varied labour
Good availability of stock nearby, and
Mains electricity and sewerage.
 Selection of Site
The site to be selected should
The actual site need not be a flat one/Low land.
 In general, it should not be built in Residential areas
Industrial areas
City expansion areas
o The compound should be Stable ground
Well drained
Free from flooding
Three types of site:
1. Urban site- should be avoided
2. Nominated industrial site- good facilities but problems of other industries &future expansion
3. Rural site- are preferred
 Size of the Abattoir
Influencing factors
 Maximum number of animals slaughtered daily.
 Future plan to process meat and meat by products.
 Frequency /quantity of meat supply
 Number of buildings

Based on size the abattoirs: Through put-number of animals to be slaughtered/hr/day

 Small abattoir- upto 30,000 LU/yr, area required is 1-2 acres,
 Medium abattoir- upto 50,000+ LU/ yr, about 2-4 acres,
 Large abattoir- > 100,000 LU / yr, about 4-6 acres of land
Slaughter capacity- livestock unit (LU)
1 LU= 1 cattle= 2 pigs= 3 calves= 5 sheep
 Facilities in abattoir
•The facilities required in a abattoir are
•
 Water Electricity
 Drainage Lighting
 Ventilation Floor and wall finishes
 Doors Equipment design
 Pest control
WATER
 Mains water supply should provide an ample supply of potable water.
 Water should be distributed to all parts of the plant under adequate pressure
 The hot water supply should have a temperature of 82°C.
 Water storage tanks must hold at least one day’s water requirement.

 The recommended water requirement: 454 litres/day per pigs, plus 25% at a reasonable
272 liters/day per bovine pressure
45 litres/day per shoat

 Steam production, refrigeration or fire control

 Facilities in abattoir:
ELECTRICITY
 Industrial three phase electricity supply should be provided
 A stand-by generator/fuelled with oil gas must be installed in the slaughterhouse for uninterrupted power supply.

DRAINAGE
 The floors: in wet areas should slope uniformly to drains with a gradient

 One drain: is for each 40 m2 of floor area.

 The internal drainage: should be in the form of open concrete channels leading to open gullies, low places

 Catch Basins - Catch basins must be provided on drains for grease recovery.

 Traps and Vents – it must also be provided on drains, properly sealed and easily cleanable and the latter to be
effectively vented to outside the building.

 Special arrangements have to be made for dealing with stomach and intestinal contents,

 Grids covering drains should be made of cast iron or other approved material.
 Facilities in abattoir
LIGHTING
 Adequate natural or artificial lighting must be provided throughout the meat plant.
 The type of lighting should not distort colors.

 It is generally recommended that the overall intensity should not be less than
540 lux (50 foot-candles) at all inspection points
220 lux (20 foot-candles) in workrooms
110 lux (10 foot-candles) in other areas

 These intensities of light are usually taken at levels of 0.9 m from the floor, except in
inspection areas where the height is 1.5 m.

Ventilation
 Adequate ventilation should be provided to prevent excessive heat, steam and condensation.
 Ventilation prevents the accumulation of odours, dust

 Openings of the ventilators and windows should be screened and sills sloped. .

 Facilities in abattoir
Floor and wall finishes
 Capable of easily cleaned and sanitized
 Made up of non slippery, non absorbent and non toxic material
 No sharp corners
 Finishing with tiles up to 3 meter height
 Walls of tiles, stainless steel or Al sheets
Equipments
• Non rusted materials
• If wooden, proper lamination

Doors
 It should be at least 2.5m high, 1.5m wide & made up of rust resistant metal

Pest Control

 Insect and rodent screens should be provided in abattoir

 Terms
Abattoir is any premises that is approved and registered by the controlling authority in
which food animals are slaughtered and dressed for human consumption.

Food Animal- any mammal or bird declared to be an animal for slaughter

Carcass: The body of any slaughter animals after bleeding and dressing

Evisceration – to disembowel and remove entrails of a carcass

Lairage- means holding pens for livestock at a slaughterhouse prior to slaughtering
Stunning- is any mechanical, electrical, chemical or other procedure which causes
immediate loss of consciousness

Meat- means any portion of an animal which is intended for human consumption, whether
fresh, chilled or frozen or otherwise processed by any means whatsoever or included in any
 Cont…
Red offal – include heart, liver, kidney, spleen, tongue, lungs, pancrease.
Green offal – include the rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum, small intestines, large
intestines, colon, and gizzards.
White offal- include the brain, spine, bone marrow, testicles and teats.
Condemned: in relation to a slaughter animal or meat, means inspected and judged as
unfit form human consumption and requiring destruction.
Cleaning: Means the removal of objectionable matter.
Clean area – area designated for slaughter operations after evisceration to dispatch
Unclean/dirty area – area designated for slaughter operations from stunning to evisceration
Clean operations – In it includes evisceration, carcass splitting; diaphragm, fat, tail trim;
carcass washing and dispatch to the cold room.
Unclean operation – includes stunning, bleeding, flaying or scalding (in pigs or poultry)/
defeathering (poultry), dehairing in pigs and dehiding in cattle and small ruminants.
 Abattoir Layout

 Reception area/restingpen
 Lairages/holding pen
 Slaughter hall
 Ancillary accomodation
 Cold storage/dispatch
Slaughtering process
 Cont…
Receiving area
 Non slippery, adequate space
 Unloading vehicle and unloading ramp height should be equal
 Separation of bullying and aggressive animals
 Sufficient time to move forward, no beating
 No sudden moving objects, curved path instead of straight path
 Near to vehicle washing area

Lairage
• Main objective to provide rest and to accumulate the animals before slaughter
• Near to receiving area
• Proper ventilation and light supply
• Feeding and watering of animals if kept for longer period
• Prime importance to animal natural behaviour
 Cont…
Lairage
• Stock density:
Cattle- 2.3 m2/ animal
pig- 0.6 m2/ animal
heavy pig (>100kg)- 0.7 m2/animal
• Cattle-7.6m×6.0m for 20-25 cattle, gate should be 2.4 m wide
• For sheep- 0.9 m height and 0.9 m wide
• Cattle and sheep can be housed under
one roof but not pigs
• Pig-pens should be long and narrow,
fine water spray
 Cont…
Slaughter hall
 From lairage the animal are transferred to slaughter hall, w/c situated about 10m away
 Provision of stunning, slaughter and dressing
 Open hall with generous floor space
 Includes :- Stunning pen
 Bleeding area
 Carcass dressing area
 Inspection area
 Carcass washing area
Stunning pen
 Area where animals are made unconscious before killing
Bleeding area
 The area posses good gradiant for blood collection with main diameter of 150mm
Carcass dressing area
 Here the removal of hide, skin& head, evisceration, splitting, trimming and final wash
Inspection area :-
 Visceral organ & whole eviscerated carcass are examined for pathological lesion
 Cont…
Ancillary Accommodation
 Condemned meat room
 It’s directly connected with inspection area
 Sorting and holding of materials unfit for human consumption prior to dispatch
 Detained meat room
 For inspection of meat requiring further examination
 Adjacent to slaughter hall and near to laboratory
 The room is connected with inspection point, condemned meat room and chilling section

 Quality control laboratory

 It’s directly connected with slaughter hall
 All facilities for water analysis, nutritional, microbial and biochemical analysis test

 Final decision of acceptance or rejection of the meat

 Cont…
Cold storage /Chilling room
 Carcass should be chilled soon after PMI
 The chilling temperature for carcass s’d not exceed 7 oC and
offals below 4 oC
 The carcass is held in chilling room for 3 days if (Ageing)

Cutting room
 Also known as processing room/ deboning room
 Area Temperature 10-12 oC, RH-60-70%
 Area illumination 220 lux

Packaging and Dispatch

 Adjacent to cutting and deboning room
 Meat chunks are packaged and after freezing they are kept under frozen condition (-40 oC)
before dispatch
 BUILDINGS AND THEIR DISPOSITIONS
The slaughterhouse may consist of : 1) main department and (2) accessory department.
 Main department
 This department may have the following units
 Lairage, Weighment room
 Stunning chamber
 Slaughter hall
 Cooling hall
 Hide and skin store
 Manure house
 Detention room
 Condemned meat room
 Boiler house
 Facilities for Personnel
 Mess rooms
 Bath rooms
 Veterinary Office
 Office accommodation
 Superintendent’s office and
 Veterinary Laboratory
 BUILDINGS AND THEIR DISPOSITIONS
Accessory department

 The accessory department may consist of the following units

o Gut and tripe room

o Red offal room
o Edible Fat room
o Cutting rooms
o Inedible Area
o Equipment Wash
o Digester room
o Blood drying yard
o Fresh Meat Dispatch Area
o Residential quarters
o Isolation block

 It will be observed from the above list, that each of the rooms is intended to serve certain special
needs in the slaughter, dressing and subsequent disposal of food animals’ carcasses in the
order of operations taking place here
 Maintaining sanitation in the slaughter house
 Sanitation is very crucial and decisive in the production of hygienic meat.
 Every effort should be made to avoid the contamination of carcass.

The source of contamination with its measurements were below

Source of contamination Measures taken
 Dirty skin & hide - clean lariage
-Careful flaying
-Immediate removal of the skin/hide
 Over crowded - provide sufficient space
-Prevent over crowding
-Reduce personnel
 Visceral contents - Seal the esophagus
-Careful evisceration
-Rapid removal of viscera from skilling floor
 Contamination from floor - keep above the floor
-Hang the carcass.
 Environmental Hygiene of the abattoir
 Environmental hygiene has impact on the Animal and public health, and Quality of the food
produced
o Requires
 Investment (finance)
 Equipment
 Trained man power
 Collaboration between personnel and management

 Utmost care should be undertaken so that no contaminants are disposed by food plants.
This requires :
 Proper site selection during construction of abattoir
 Fencing of the area
 Control of rodents and insects
 Proper waste water disposal
 Environmental Hygiene of the abattoir
 Slaoughter house by–products causing environmental pollution includes the following:
• Blood
• Rumen contents
• Fat (grease)
• Trimmings
• Waste water
 Slaughter house by production disposal: Objective of proper disposal
o Avoid environmental pollution
Disposal of Blood: 1. Blood Do not mix blood with waste water.
Blood clots drains.
Effluent flows slowly.
2. Collect blood in a separate receptacle.
3. If this is not possible, build especial septic tank.
 Environmental Hygiene of the abattoir
Utilization of blood Blood volume bled from food animals
Animal Available volume
when bled out
(ml/kg/Bw)
 Fresh blood: -Can be mixed with bran and fed to poultry or pigs.
 Direct blood: If direct feeding is not possible, blood can be
OX 30
dried under the sun on cement floor and fed to animals.
Sheep 25
Goat 30

 Heated blood: Cut 200 liter barrel into 2 pieces length wise,
collect blood in it, heat the blood with fire from below,
discard the serum, dry the solid part and feed to animals.

Rumen contents
 The most nuisance and burden in the slaughterhouse

 Can be used as fertilizer by producing compost.

 Sanitation of the abattoir
 The environment of the abattoir should be kept clean by.
o Fencing
o Controlling the rodent population
o Eliminating their breeding places
o Deriving them food supply
o Construction rat proof buildings
o Maintaining and blocking holes
o Destroying rats with rodenticide.
 Controlling the insect population: This can be achieved by employing the following;
o Proper drainage of the compound
o Bush clearing, grass mowing
o Fixing insect proof screens on buildings
o Knocking down insects with insecticides
o Proper disposal of waste water.
 Sanitation of the abattoir
Proper sewage disposal
 The sewage is composed of
o Solid organic materials (meat trimmings, and GIT contents) and liquid waste.
o Organic matter should be first separated by
 Retaining it with grease catch basin
 Sedimentation of fine particles
 Exposed solid material to an anaerobic oxidation.
 Proper sewage disposal
 Letting it into municipal sewage
 Collecting in septic tanks
 Using biological filtration technique
 THANK YOU
QUESTIONS, COMMENTS,
SUGGESTIONS