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 December 31, 2012.

The FSIS Data Analysis and Integration Group (DIG) 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 January 24, 2013. The suspension data was provided by FSIS' Office of Program Evaluation, Enforcement and Review (OPEER).

Humane Handling Procedures Performed
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2012, there were 181,143 Humane Handling 04C02 procedures performed (Table 1). This is a 34% increase from the 134,787 procedures performed for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2011. Also, procedures performed during FY 2012 increased steadily from one quarter to the next.

Suspensions
There were 70 inhumane handling suspensions at 58 FSIS facilities with an overall NR rate of 0.80% for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2012, compared to 68 inhumane handling suspensions at 54 FSIS facilities with an overall NR rate of 0.92% for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2011 (Table 2). From the 58 suspended facilities, 2 establishments had 3 suspensions each and 8 establishments had 2 suspensions each (OPEER suspension data).

Time Spent on HATS Activities
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2012, the total HATS time was 354,916 hours in 800 FSIS livestock slaughter plants, compared to 307,205 hours for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2011 in 809 FSIS livestock slaughter plants (Table 3). The time spent by Public Health Veterinarians (PHV) was 233,953 hours compared to 120,963 hours by non-PHV inspection personnel. PHVs did 65% of the total HATS hours performed for FY 2012 compared to 53% of the hours performed in FY 2011.

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 December 31, 2012, the following was identified. Livestock heads slaughtered ranged from 3,219,211 in 566 very small plants to 126,714,764 in 62 large plants. The percent noncompliance rate was 0.24% for large plants to 0.46% for very small plants. Finally, the HATS time per 04C02 procedure performed ranged from 2.43 hours per 04C02 procedure performed in large plants to 1.37 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 December 31, 2012, the noncompliance percent rate by district ranged from 0.12% in Springdale, to 0.71% in Alameda. For the same time period, the noncompliance rate per 100,000 livestock heads slaughtered ranged from 0.11 in Springdale to 3.91 in Philadelphia (Table 5).

Overall, for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2012, livestock head slaughtered increased when compared to the 12-month period ending December 31, 2011. Also, the overall HATS time increased from 307,205 hours to 354,916 hours. The number of 04C02 procedures increased from 134,787 to 181,143 and the number of noncompliances increased from 542 to 684.

District Comparison of DVMS Humane Handling Visits in Establishments Using the Systematic Approach
There were a total of 305 District Veterinary Medical Specialist (DVMS) Humane Handling visits in establishments using the Systematic Approach from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. Of those 305 visits, 2 visits resulted in suspension(s)/withdrawal(s), 26 visits resulted in NRs being written by the Inspector-In-Charge (IIC) and 40 visits resulted in another type of action. The number of visits in establishments using the Systematic Approach varied greatly from 3 visits in the Jackson District to 81 visits in the Philadelphia District (Table 6).