Effective animal stunning

摘要

An animal stunning apparatus for inducing unconsciousness and insensibility of a live subject animal includes an applicator for contacting an application point on the live subject animal's head and couples microwave radiation to the head. A microwave generator generates microwave energy of a suitable power level and frequency, and a waveguide directs the microwave radiation to the applicator. An auto-tuner in the waveguide uses a directional coupler to detect forward and reflected power and to tune in real time the impedance for matching the load and optimize effective power transfer. A switch discontinues the application of microwave radiation that is heating the frontal portion of the brain after a period of time sufficient to induce the unconsciousness and insensibility. Methods for inducing rapid unconsciousness and insensibility in an animal include application of microwave radiation.

主权项

1. An animal stunning apparatus for inducing unconsciousness and insensibility of a live subject animal, the apparatus comprising:
an applicator relatively movable in relation to the live subject animal's head for bringing the applicator into contact with an application point defined on the animal's head overlying a frontal portion of the animal's brain, the applicator having a coupling conformation to couple microwave radiation therethrough to the head and to the frontal portion of the brain of the subject animal when in contact with the application point on the animal's head; a microwave generator for generating and radiating microwave energy of a suitable power level and frequency; a waveguide located to receive and direct the microwave radiation from the generator to the applicator located at an operative end of the waveguide to heat the frontal portion of the brain of the subject animal beneath the application point which the applicator contacts in use; an auto-tuner operatively associated with the waveguide and configured to detect reflected power of microwave radiation in the waveguide resulting from the degree of the impedance matching between the applicator and the animal's head and which tunes the waveguide to reduce the reflected power and increase the transfer of microwave power to the animal's head; a monitoring device comprising at least one of:
a visual display responsive to operation of the generator and the auto-tuner and operative to display the microwave power being generated in use by the microwave generator to enable monitoring of an effective power transfer to the animal's head and visual assessment of an effective syncope; ora memory device operative to continually log during the operation of the apparatus the microwave power being generated by the microwave generator to provide a stored record of parameters of an animal stunning operation for subsequent analysis for regulatory compliance, process research, and operation management purposes;wherein the microwave power is determined from the generated microwave energy and the reflected power as being transferred through the applicator operation; and a switch operable to discontinue the application of microwave radiation effecting heating of the frontal portion of the brain after a period of time sufficient to raise the temperature of the frontal portion of the brain of the subject animal to thereby induce the unconsciousness and insensibility.