Invention and development of the Livetec Nex® results in enhanced global poultry welfare

Description of impact

Underpinning Research:

We compared welfare impacts of novel on-farm poultry killing tools with existing methods by behavioural, physiological and neurophysiological techniques. This led to the invention by Martin of the “Livetec Nex®”, a novel design that improves efficiency and welfare outcomes compared with traditional manual cervical dislocation methods or mechanical cervical dislocation devices, such as captive bolts, for the killing of individual birds for stock management or to end suffering due to injury or illness.

Significance and Reach of Impact:

In 2018, the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) acknowledged that the Livetec Nex® is compliant under European Council Regulation 1099/2009 for mechanical cervical dislocation, providing an alternative to unreliable and low-welfare manual killing methods. Launched in July 2019, the Livetec Nex® was accepted as Red Tractor compliant in August 2019. In direct response, major UK-based poultry producers placed significant orders to equip their premises, including Moy Park (purchased [redacted] units; covers 800 farms and312,000,000 birds per year), Avara ([redacted] units; 208,000,000 birds per year) and 2-Sisters Food Group ([redacted] units; 322,000,000 birds per year). Tesco is stronglyencouraging its entire poultry supply chain (supplying 156,000,000 broilers per yearequating to 53% of retail market share) to adopt the Livetec Nex®. Altogether, 3,476 units have sold. The Livetec Nex® was named “New Product of The Year” by Poultry Business Magazine in 2020.

A joint submission with the University of Edinburgh to REF2021.

Impact date	2015 → 2020
Category of impact	Technological