Few areas of on-farm decision making are as poorly understood as the point at which an injured animal stops being a candidate for the food chain and becomes fallen stock. Casualty slaughter fallen stock collection sits directly on that line, and getting the decision wrong costs either the value of the carcass or a serious compliance failure. Martlands is a family-run, DEFRA approved business in Burscough providing licensed fallen stock and ABP collection across the North West, and this article sets out what happens to the animal and to the by-products under each of the possible routes.
The veterinary judgment belongs to your vet. What follows is the disposal and documentation consequence of each decision, which is the part farms most often have to work out for themselves at short notice.
The Three Routes an Injured Animal Can Take
An animal that suffers an acute injury, most often a fracture or a calving injury, has three possible destinations. It can be treated and recover. It can be subject to emergency slaughter on the holding for human consumption, which requires that the animal was healthy before the accident, that a veterinary surgeon certifies it as fit, that slaughter is carried out correctly and that the carcass is transported promptly to an approved abattoir with the certificate. Or it can be euthanised, in which case it is fallen stock and must be disposed of through a licensed animal by-product route.
The second route is narrower than many farmers assume. It is not available for an animal that was already ill, and the timescales for transport and inspection are tight. Where the criteria are not met, the animal is fallen stock and any attempt to treat it otherwise puts a food business at risk as well as the farm.
What Happens When the Animal Is Euthanised on the Holding
An animal euthanised on farm, whether by captive bolt and pithing or by veterinary injection, is fallen stock from that moment. The duty of care under the Animal By-Products (Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 requires collection within twenty-four hours of death, and burial and burning have been unlawful in the United Kingdom since 2003.
Cattle and sheep are handled as Category 1 material on specified risk material grounds, and a bovine over forty-eight months requires BSE sampling. Martlands is a DEFRA approved processing and sampling facility, so that testing forms part of our Category 1 ABP collection service under Animal By-Products Licence No APB/CCN21/373/8002. Where a barbiturate agent was used for euthanasia, the residue places the carcass in Category 1 irrespective of species, and it must be routed accordingly.
Why the Method of Killing Changes the Disposal Route
This is the detail that catches people out. A pig euthanised by captive bolt is handled differently from a pig euthanised by lethal injection, because the injection introduces a substance that must be excluded absolutely from the rendering and feed chain. Our Category 2 ABP collection route handles fallen pigs and poultry in the ordinary case, but the presence of a barbiturate moves the material up a category. Tell us the method when you book, because we cannot determine it from the carcass.
By-Products From Emergency Slaughter Taken to an Abattoir
Where the emergency slaughter route is used successfully, the animal is bled on the holding and taken to an abattoir where inspection takes place. The by-products generated there, including the specified risk material, are handled by the abattoir under its own approvals rather than by the farm. The farm’s residual responsibility is the material left on the holding, principally the blood and any stomach contents where these were released, which must not be allowed to enter a watercourse or a drain and must be dealt with appropriately.
Where the carcass is subsequently rejected at inspection, it becomes animal by-product material at the abattoir rather than returning to the farm. Our note on what happens to fallen stock after collection explains the processing routes that follow.
The Documentation Trail
Each of the three routes leaves a different paper trail, and an inspector reading the year will expect them to be consistent. A recovery appears in the medicine book. An emergency slaughter appears as a movement to an abattoir with a veterinary certificate. A euthanasia appears as a mortality and, if the disposal was lawful, as a Commercial Document from a licensed collector. Every Martlands collection produces that document, recording the category of material, the number and species of animals, the date, the collecting vehicle and the receiving premises, and bookings through the KoLeCt system timestamp the report.
A mortality with no corresponding collection is the discrepancy that prompts the question. Our guidance on commercial documents explained sets out what the document contains and how long to keep it.
Speed Matters in Both Directions
Casualty decisions are made under time pressure, and the disposal side needs to move at the same speed as the veterinary side. If an animal has been euthanised, the collection should be booked immediately rather than at the end of the day. Our routes cover the dairy and beef ground across Lancashire fallen stock collection, and the Cheshire Plain through Christleton fallen stock collection, and same-day collection is available across the region.
To book a collection, or to talk through how a casualty should be handled before the situation arises, call 01704 776977 or use the contact us page. Our farm and fallen stock collection service operates a rapid-response fleet, and as NFSCO members we can take collections through the national scheme.
