The UK government has proposed phasing out high-concentration carbon dioxide stunning of pigs in British abattoirs and replacing it with alternatives such as argon gas and automated electrical stunning, Farmers Weekly reports. Defra announced the plans on 26 October; a consultation runs until 21 December on the welfare benefits, costs, feasibility and possible timescales.
Defra has worked since April 2024 with processors, equipment makers, gas suppliers and welfare groups on alternatives, and ministers accept that businesses would need time to adapt. Farming minister Stephen Morgan said the public want to know their meat is produced to high welfare standards and that the plans would "reduce unnecessary suffering".
The proposals follow advice from the Animal Welfare Committee, which raised concerns about respiratory distress in pigs before they lose consciousness. It found inert gases such as argon significantly less aversive and electrical stunning capable of near-instant unconsciousness. Committee chair Madeline Campbell called the welfare case for moving away from high-concentration CO2 "incontrovertible".
The National Pig Association warned that research and trials have not yet produced an alternative that improves welfare at commercial scale. Chief policy adviser Katie Jarvis said any new approach must be commercially viable, and the association is asking for time to test alternatives, a full impact assessment and attention to competition from imported pork stunned with CO2.
Earlier AHDB analysis put the cost of CO2 stunning at about 42p a pig, against £1.36 to £1.49 for argon and about £1.11 for electrical stunning, with possible slower line speeds. Defra argues the change would also reduce the industry's exposure to disruptions in gas supply.
Photo: SteveStrummer (pigs at a rotary feeder) / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Source: Farmers Weekly
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