Turkey slaughtering procedures: time to loss of brain responsiveness after exsanguination or cardiac arrest.

The effect of inducing a cardiac arrest or severing both carotid arteries on the spontaneous and visual evoked electrical activity in the brain were examined in anaesthetised turkeys. The time to loss of evoked activity was greater following the cardiac arrest. It was concluded that the potential humanitarian advantages of inducing a cardiac arrest at stunning are less pronounced in the turkey than for other poultry species.