Engineering, animal welfare, and meat quality considerations of broiler transportation in a heated and ventilated vehicle

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Transportation is an essential process where broiler chickens must be transferred from widely dispersed farms to a central slaughtering facility. In transit, birds are exposed to many potential stressors, with effects of temperature and relative humidity of particular significance. Previous research conducted by our group discovered transport during Canadian winters resulted in both extreme cold and hot spots occurring concomitantly on commercial poultry trailers. The focus of our proposed project is to determine the effects of transport environmental conditions (temperature and relative humidity) on the welfare and meat quality of broiler chickens, and to collect information relative to engineering improved transport vehicles. Our research project will mainly address colder climate issues and experiments will be conducted in both commercial and laboratory settings. Our project is designed to test 3 hypothesized benefits of better transportation conditions: decreased mortality, improved bird welfare, and improved meat quality. The results of this work will assist the industry in responding to regulatory and societal demands for assured animal welfare, creating an opportunity to brand a Canadian product based on exceptional quality and image. The proposed project will also provide governmental agencies with important scientific data to update current animal welfare guidelines and regulations. This project will help to develop new assessment methods and protocols for evaluating the effects of transportation on animal welfare and meat quality. Important data relative to cold weather animal transport will also be available for the scientific community.      This project is led by Dr. Trever Crowe (engineering), Dr. Henry Classen (poultry science) and Dr. Phyllis Shand (meat science) of the University of Saskatchewan. The multi-disciplinary background of our research team allows an integrated approach to this research challenge. With previous research focused mostly on mild to hot ambient conditions, the proposed project would provide much needed information on the impacts of cold climatic transport on bird welfare and meat quality.