United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service - Office of Field Operations (FSIS – OFO)

Overview
This report provides an overview of humane handling (HH) and slaughter procedures (04C02) performed by FSIS inspection program personnel (IPP) in Federally Inspected livestock slaughter facilities. Also included is information on noncompliance records (NR) issued for inhumane handling, HH verification time recorded in the FSIS Humane Handling Activity Tracking System (HATS), FSIS slaughter data, and inhumane handling suspensions for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2013.

The FSIS Data Analysis and Integration Staff (DAIS) extracted data on inspection activities, slaughter totals, and HH time from the FSIS Data Warehouse including data from establishments converted to PHIS. This data was extracted April 9, 2013. The suspension data was provided by FSIS' Office of Investigation, Enforcement, and Audits (OIEA).

Humane Handling Procedures Performed
For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2013, there were 183,901 Humane Handling 04C02 procedures performed (Table 1). This is a 25% increase from the 146,952 procedures performed for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2012. Even though the number of procedures increased by 25% the noncompliance rate decreased 15% from 0.41% to 0.35%. Total procedures performed peaked in the fourth quarter of FY 2012 at 48,111.

Suspensions
There were 74 inhumane handling suspensions at 61 FSIS facilities with an overall NR rate of 0.76% for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2013, compared to 68 inhumane handling suspensions at 56 FSIS facilities with an overall NR rate of 1.08% for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2012 (Table 2). From the 61 suspended facilities, 2 establishments had 3 suspensions each and 9 establishments had 2 suspensions each (OIEA suspension data).

Time Spent on HATS Activities
For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2013, the total HATS time was 375,210 hours in 804 FSIS livestock slaughter plants. This is a 26.0% increase from the 298,109 HATS hours in 805 FSIS livestock slaughter plants for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2012 (Table 3). For the current year, the time spent by Public Health Veterinarians (PHV) was 243,190 hours compared to 132,020 hours by non-PHV inspection personnel.

Plant Size Comparison of Livestock Facilities, Head Slaughtered, Procedures Performed and HATS Activities
When breaking down the slaughter, 04C02 procedures, and HATS time data by plant size for the 12 month period ending March 31, 2013, the following was identified. Livestock heads slaughtered ranged from 3,324,210 in 570 very small plants to 126,321,582 in 62 large plants. The percent noncompliance rate was 0.22% for large plants to 0.44% for very small plants. Finally, the HATS time per 04C02 procedure performed ranged from 2.46 hours per 04C02 procedure performed in large plants to 1.45 hours per 04C02 procedure performed in very small plants (Table 4).

District Comparison of Livestock Facilities, Head Slaughtered, Procedures Performed and HATS Activities
For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2013, the noncompliance percent rate by district ranged from 0.13% in Springdale, to 0.70% in Philadelphia. For the same time period, the noncompliance rate per 100,000 livestock heads slaughtered ranged from 0.13 in Springdale to 4.02 in Philadelphia (Table 5).

Overall, for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2013, livestock head slaughtered increased when compared to the 12-month period ending March 31, 2012. Also, the overall HATS time increased from 298,109 hours to 375,210 hours. The number of 04C02 procedures increased from 146,952 to 183,901 and the number of noncompliances increased from 605 to 649.