Improved efficiency of intact crop removal for broiler breeder rooster and hen carcasses during manual evisceration.

摘要

The crops of chickens can act as reservoirs for Salmonella and Campylobacter, that can contaminate the chicken meat during processing. This study demonstrated the use of a technique for efficient removal of the intact crop from broilers, on 40- and 41-week-old broiler breeder roosters and hens. After scalding, defeathering and head removal, the neck is separated from the carcass parallel with the shoulders, leaving the ventral neck skin, trachea, and oesophagus intact. This can then be grasped above the proventriculus within the thoracic cavity, and the crop pulled through the thoracic inlet. Breaking the neck prior to crop removal allowed significantly more crops to be removed intact (85% compared with only 20% when the neck remained unbroken), so should minimise the incidence of crop contents contaminating the carcass during evisceration.