Table 3.

Generic poultry processing phases indicating mechanical and manual actions that may contribute to ergonomic stress leading to musculoskeletal disorders.

Action or Task	Large Scale—Mechanical Process		Small Scale—Mostly Manual
	Mechanical Line	Ergonomic Hazard	Manual or Hand Operated Line	Ergonomic Hazard
Off loading	Easy load system		By hand	Yes
Live shackling	Hang birds by hand	Yes	Hang birds by hand	Yes
Stunning	In line electrical water bath		Dry method held by hand	Yes
Bleeding	Bleeding follows mechanical neck cutting		Manual neck slitting bird placed in bleed cones	Yes
De-feathering	In line de-feathering machine & final manual de-feathering	Yes	Handheld or small scale de-feathering apparatus	Yes
Head, feet removal	In-line mechanical head pulling & hock cutting		Neck cut off with scissors or knife	Yes
Vent cutting & cloaca removal	Pneumatic vent drill, knife or scissors	Yes	Manually	Yes
Abdominal slitting	In line opening cutter		Knife or scissor	Yes
Evisceration	In line evisceration machine		Manual evisceration spoons	Yes
Crop & oesophagus removal	In line cropping machine		Manual crop removal (pre-evisceration)	Yes
Separation of carcass & organs	Per hand or manually	Yes	Hand separation	Yes
Carcass rehang	Per hand	Yes	Per hand	Yes
Red & dirty offal separation	Automatic separators		Hand separation	Yes
Giblet harvesting separating gizzard from gut	Automatic separation of intestines & gizzard Clean gizzard	Yes	Hand separation and manual cleaning	Yes
Neck pulling	In line neck puller		Knife or scissor cut	Yes
Final inspection; Debris removal from carcass	In line vacuum machine		Hand held vacuum machine/tube	Yes
Final washing	Automatic inside outside washer		Hand wash by spray	Yes
Chilling	Spin/ air chillers		Commercial type freezers—lifting	Yes
Portioning	In line cutting machine		Manual cutting	Yes
Packing	Automatic weighing & hand sorting	Yes	Packing and sorting by hand	Yes
Individual quick freeze	Gyro freezer		Freezer or blast freezer—lifting	Yes