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Contacting the AVMA Regarding Petition on VSD

Background Information

To contact your AVMA delegate, log on to www.avma.org. The landing page contains contact information for your HOD delegate. Some delegates do not monitor their posted email addresses, so we recommend calling them by phone.

Talking points include:

  • A new scientific, peer-reviewed article published just this week highlights the key concerns about the use of heatstroke as a method of depopulation pigs and poultry. The article, published in the open access Animals publication, highlights that VSD+ Heat has become a "standard" method of depopulating chickens (90% of chicken killed in depopulations in 2022 used VSD+Heat as the sole method or one of multiple methods used at the premises); that review of the scientific literature on hot air sauna burns in humans suggests some pigs killed by VSD+TH may have suffered second- and third degree burns before dying; and that the veterinary professional has significant power and responsibility to advance animal welfare when it comes to depopulations, both because the AVMA's Guidelines have been incorporated into federal and state policy and because there are numerous ways by which the veterinary profession could help decrease the need for depopulation. 

  • VSD+Heat is becoming the “go to” method for depopulation. During the on-going avian flu outbreak, ventilation shutdown (VSD) plus heat has been used to kill tens of millions of chickens, turkeys, and ducks. In contrast, VSD was only used a handful of times during the previous HPAI outbreak (2014-2016), prior to release of the AVMA’s Depopulation Guidelines, which classified VSD+ as “permitted in constrained circumstances.”

  • VSD+ is a particularly cruel and painful method of killing birds and pigs. VSD+Heat causes birds and pigs to die over several excruciating hours due to heatstroke. Just as in other species, birds and pigs dying of heatstroke experience heat distress, pain, severe damage to their gastrointestinal tract, and respiratory distress prior to losing consciousness.

  • What are producers supposed to do if preferred methods like CO2 aren't available? Even if the American Veterinary Medical Association classifies VSD/VSD+ as “not recommended,” producers may still choose to use it. However, under current systems, producers who use methods classified as “not recommended” by AVMA are not eligible for USDA indemnity payments. As a result, if VSD+ is reclassified, producers may be motivated to implement alternative methods that are less cruel in order to avoid financial consequences.

  • AVMA has failed to act since early 2021. A previous Resolution by petition asking the AVMA to reclassify VSD+ as “not recommended” was initially introduced prior to the January 2021 House of Delegates (HoD) session. The AVMA declined to allow discussion of the Resolution until the July 2021 meeting, at which time the HoD voted to refer the Resolution to the AVMA Panel on Depopulation. In spite of this, an AVMA representative announced in June 2022 that the group had been too busy with other projects, so the Panel had not yet begun deliberating about the request.
  • AVMA should lead the way in preventing widespread use of VSD+. Given the number of animals affected by the on-going animal welfare crisis, the AVMA must do more than reclassify VSD+. Our profession should work to decrease the need for depopulations and reduce the number of animals killed in them, especially by depopulation methods that rely on heatstroke as their mechanism of killing.  Instead, we should be supporting  the use of  more humane depopulation methods (including some already acknowledged by the AVMA as preferable to VSD+). As a profession, we must support legislative efforts that would increase transparency and accountability around mass depopulations.

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions about the above information.