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1. During collection and transport, animals must be handled carefully without causing unnecessary distress.

2. Animals showing symptoms of disease or originating in herds known to be contaminated with agents of public health importance may only be transported to the slaughterhouse when the competent authority so permits. CHAPTER II: REQUIREMENTS FOR SLAUGHTERHOUSES Food business operators must ensure that the construction, layout and equipment of slaughterhouses in which domestic ungulates are slaughtered meet the requirements laid down in the following points 1 to 9. Mobile partial slaughterhouses must operate in cooperation with complementary permanent slaughtering facilities in order to constitute a complete slaughterhouse complying with the requirements laid down in the following points 1 to 9. Mobile partial slaughterhouses may operate with several complementary slaughtering facilities, thus constituting several slaughterhouses.

1.

(a) Slaughterhouses must have adequate and hygienic lairage facilities or, climate permitting, waiting pens that are easy to clean and disinfect. These facilities must be equipped for watering the animals and, if necessary, feeding them. The drainage of the wastewater must not compromise food safety.

(b) They must also have separate lockable facilities or, climate permitting, pens for sick or suspect animals with separate draining and sited in such a way as to avoid contamination of other animals, unless the competent authority considers that such facilities are unnecessary.

(c) The size of the lairage facilities must ensure that the welfare of the animals is respected. Their layout must facilitate ante-mortem inspections, including the identification of the animals or groups of animals.

2. To avoid contaminating meat, they must:

(a) have a sufficient number of rooms, appropriate to the operations being carried out;

(b) have a separate room for the emptying and cleaning of stomachs and intestines, unless the competent authority authorises the separation in time of these operations within a specific slaughterhouse on a case-by-case basis;

(c) ensure separation in space or time of the following operations:

(i) stunning and bleeding;

(ii) in the case of porcine animals, scalding, depilation, scraping and singeing;

(iii) evisceration and further dressing;

(iv) handling clean guts and tripe;

(v) preparation and cleaning of other offal, particularly the handling of skinned heads if it does not take place at the slaughter line;

(vi) packaging offal; and (vii) dispatching meat;

(d) have installations that prevent contact between the meat and the floors, walls and fixtures; and (e) have slaughter lines (where operated) that are designed to allow constant progress of the slaughter process and to avoid cross-contamination between the different parts of the slaughter line. Where more than one slaughter line is operated in the same premises, there must be adequate separation of the lines to prevent cross-contamination.

3. They must have facilities for disinfecting tools with hot water supplied at not less than 82 °C, or an alternative system having an equivalent effect.

4. The equipment for washing hands used by the staff engaged in handling exposed meat must have taps designed to prevent the spread of contamination.

5. There must be lockable facilities for the refrigerated storage of detained meat and separate lockable facilities for the storage of meat declared unfit for human consumption.

6. There must be a separate place with appropriate facilities for the cleaning, washing and disinfection of means of transport for livestock. However, slaughterhouses need not have these places and facilities if the competent authority so permits and official authorised places and facilities exist nearby.

7. They must have lockable facilities reserved for the slaughter of sick and suspect animals. This is not essential if this slaughter takes place in other establishments authorised by the competent authority for this purpose, or at the end of the normal slaughter period.

8. If manure or digestive tract content is stored in the slaughterhouse, there must be a special area or place for that purpose.

9. They must have an adequately equipped lockable facility or, where needed, room for the exclusive use of the veterinary service. CHAPTER III: REQUIREMENTS FOR CUTTING PLANTS Food business operators must ensure that cutting plants handling meat of domestic ungulates: 1. are constructed so as to avoid contamination of meat, in particular by:

(a) allowing constant progress of the operations; or (b) ensuring separation between the different production batches; 2. have rooms for the separate storage of packaged and exposed meat, unless stored at different times or in such a way that the packaging material and the manner of storage cannot be a source of contamination for the meat; 3. have cutting rooms equipped to ensure compliance with the requirements laid down in Chapter V; 4. have equipment for washing hands with taps designed to prevent the spread of contamination, for use by staff engaged in handling exposed meat; and 5. have facilities for disinfecting tools with hot water supplied at not less than 82 °C, or an alternative system having an equivalent effect. CHAPTER IV: SLAUGHTER HYGIENE

1. After arrival at the slaughterhouse, the slaughter of the animals must not be unduly delayed. However, where required for welfare reasons, animals must be given a resting period before slaughter. Animals that are presented at a slaughterhouse for slaughter shall be slaughtered there and direct movements to another slaughterhouse may be allowed only in exceptional cases in accordance with Article 43(6), second subparagraph of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/627.

2.

(a) Meat from animals other than those referred to in subparagraphs (b) and (c) must not be used for human consumption if they die otherwise than by being slaughtered in the slaughterhouse.

(b) Only live animals intended for slaughter may be brought into the slaughter premises, with the exception of:

(i) animals that have undergone emergency slaughter outside the slaughterhouse in accordance with Chapter VI;

(ii) animals slaughtered at the holding of provenance in accordance with Chapter VIa of this Section or in accordance with point 3 of Section III;

(iii) wild game, in compliance with Section IV, Chapter II.

(c) Meat from animals that undergo slaughter following an accident in a slaughterhouse may be used for human consumption if, on inspection, no serious lesions other than those due to the accident are found.

3. The animals or, where appropriate, each batch of animals sent for slaughter must be identified so that their origin can be traced.

4. Animals must be clean.

5. Slaughterhouse operators must follow the instructions of the veterinarian appointed by the competent authority in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 854/2004 to ensure that ante-mortem inspection of every animal to be slaughtered is carried out under suitable conditions.

6. Animals brought into the slaughter hall must be slaughtered without undue delay.

7. Stunning, bleeding, skinning, evisceration and other dressing must be carried out without undue delay and in a manner that avoids contaminating the meat. In particular:

(a) the trachea and oesophagus must remain intact during bleeding, except in the case of slaughter according to a religious custom;

(b) during the removal of hides and fleece:

(i) contact between the outside of the skin and the carcase must be prevented; and (ii) operators and equipment coming into contact with the outer surface of hides and fleece must not touch the meat;

(c) measures must be taken to prevent the spillage of digestive tract content during and after evisceration and to ensure that evisceration is completed as soon as possible after stunning; and (d) removal of the udder must not result in contamination of the carcase with milk or colostrum.

8. Carcases and other parts of the body intended for human consumption must be completely skinned, except in the case of porcine animals, the heads of ovine and caprine animals and calves, the muzzle and lips of bovine animals and the feet of bovine, ovine and caprine animals. Heads, including muzzle and lips, and feet must be handled in such a way as to avoid contamination.

9. When not skinned, porcine animals must have their bristles removed immediately. The risk of contamination of the meat with scalding water must be minimised. Only approved additives may be used for this operation. Porcine animals must be thoroughly rinsed afterwards with potable water.

10. The carcases must not contain visible faecal contamination. Any visible contamination must be removed without delay by trimming or alternative means having an equivalent effect.

11. Carcases and offal must not come into contact with floors, walls or work stands.

12. Slaughterhouse operators must follow the instructions of the competent authority to ensure that post-mortem inspection of all slaughtered animals is carried out under suitable conditions in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 854/2004.

13. Until post-mortem inspection is completed, parts of a slaughtered animal subject to such inspection must:

(a) remain identifiable as belonging to a given carcase; and (b) come into contact with no other carcase, offal or viscera, including those that have already undergone post-mortem inspection. However, provided that it shows no pathological lesion, the penis may be discarded immediately.

14. Both kidneys must be removed from their fatty covering. In the case of bovine and porcine animals, and solipeds, the peri-renal capsule must also be removed.

15. If the blood or other offal of several animals is collected in the same container before completion of post-mortem inspection, the entire contents must be declared unfit for human consumption if the carcase of one or more of the animals concerned has been declared unfit for human consumption.