Risk assessment of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders in a poultry slaughterhouse

Abstract

This paper aimed to assess the risks related to upper limbs repetitive movements in work tasks in a poultry slaughterhouse. The study was carried out in a poultry abattoir in which 180,000 chickens were slaughtered daily, with 2,000 workers distributed in three shifts. To evaluate the risks related to upper limbs repetitive movements, 10% of the workers were evaluated using the OCRA checklist. The workers performed 79.8 ± 21.7 technical actions per minute (10 points on the OCRA checklist). The overall mean OCRA checklist score was 18.9 ± 4.2 (medium risk). The right upper limb score (18.5 ± 4.5 - medium risk) was not significantly different (p = 0.128) from the left upper limb (17.8 ± 4.5 - medium risk). Among the 35 tasks analyzed, two were classified as high risk (6%) and 33 presented medium risk (94%).