Effects of Reduced Work Pace on the Risk of Developing Upper-Limb Musculoskeletal Disorders in a Poultry Slaughterhouse

Abstract

This paper aimed to evaluate the risks in relation to repetitive movements of the upper limbs in a poultry slaughterhouse, verifying the relationship between the OCRA checklist scores and each risk factor, as well as analyze the effects of a reduced work pace on the risk levels. The study was carried out in a poultry abattoir with 2,100 workers, in which 310,000 chickens were slaughtered daily. To assess the risks, 10% of the workers were evaluated by OCRA checklist. The overall mean OCRA checklist score was 22.8 ± 3.3 (high risk). The scores for the right upper limb (22.1 ± 4.1) were significantly higher than the left (21.3 ± 4.4) (p = 0.008). The technical action scores for frequency, force, shoulder, wrist and overall posture were correlated with the OCRA Checklist score. Reducing only the work rate (−50.4 ± 7.7%), it was possible to achieve very low levels of risk in 46 of the 47 tasks analyzed.