[1][2][3][4][5] The term ventilation shutdown appears to have originated in 2006 from the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
In response, millions of US farm animals were killed via mass depopulation methods with ventilation shutdown often being chosen.
In March 2022, one of the world's largest egg farms, Rembrandt Enterprises, used ventilation shutdown to kill 5.3 million chickens after the appearance of an avian influenza case.
[5] The widespread use of VSD is attributable by many, in part, due to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) publicly classifying ventilation shutdown's use as "acceptable under constrained circumstances".
Some people, such as the veterinarian Crystal Heath, have cited close ties between the meat industry and the AVMA as influencing their classification.