The incidence of occupational injuries and illnesses within the poultry industry’s slaughter and processing workforce has fallen by 80 percent during the last 20 years and has continued to decline, according to the 2013 Injury and Illness Report released by the US Department of Labor.

The report states the total recordable poultry processing illness and injury rate for 2013 was 4.5 cases per 100 full-time workers, down from 4.9 in 2012. This rate was below the average of 5.7 across all animal slaughter and processing and above the rate of 4.0 for the entire manufacturing sector.