Developing a Method to Estimate Aerosol Generation during Poultry Slaughtering and Defeathering in Bangladesh: An Experimental Study

From June to September 2018, a team of six anthropologists conducted the experiments at the National Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza, Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI), Savar, Bangladesh. We conducted experiments in the facility to ensure a controlled environment, which was required to determine the quantity of PM2.5 generated during poultry slaughtering and defeathering. To ensure consistency across slaughtering and defeathering activities, we hired three LBM workers, who followed the same slaughtering and defeathering steps as in the LBMs and used the same equipment, including knives, barrels and defeathering machines. The team also conducted a survey from February to March 2018 using a semi-structured observation form in all shops (N=716) of all retail LBMs (N=35) in Dhaka city consisting of at least 10 shops. During the survey, they collected data on various equipment used for containing slaughtered poultry during exsanguination and mechanical defeathering, average weight of slaughtered broiler chickens, and average temperature of hot water used for scalding. Additionally, the team measured breathing heights of randomly selected 20 adult workers, who conducted slaughtering and defeathering, from three conveniently selected LBMs.