The Use of Sodium Pentobarbital Sedation as an Aid in Catching and Plucking Poultry

THE use of a sedating agent in the procedure of catching and plucking of domestic fowl could be of tremendous importance to the poultry industry. It is obvious that a simple means of mass administration is necessary for it to be practical. In order to clarify some of the problems involved, a series of preliminary trials were initiated, using sodium pentobarbital as the sedative of choice. The major action of the barbituates is to depress the central nervous system. This effect explains the reason for extensive use of the barbituates as a sedative. Pentobarbital sodium (Nembutal) is one of the barbituates most widely used as a surgical anesthetic for laboratory animals. Warren and Scott (1935) considered it the most satisfactory general anesthetic for poultry. The major criticism to the use of barbituates intravenously has been that the anesthetic dose is too close to the lethal dose (Lee, 1953; Cragg, Evans …