Effect of electrical stunning on somatosensory evoked responses in the turkey's brain.

The effects of head only or waterbath electrical stunning on somatosensory evoked responses in the brain of turkeys were examined. When head only stunning with a sinusoidal AC of 50 Hz was followed within 15 s by neck cutting the evoked responses were absent following the stun. When neck cutting was not performed, the evoked responses returned from 30 s after the stun. When currents between 120 and 250 mA were used in a waterbath stunner some birds retained their evoked responses immediately after the current was applied. The proportion of birds that retained their responses after the stun was not related to the level of the current that was applied.