Investigating the relationship between temperature and humidity conditions and broiler welfare in modified trailers during transport

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is the regulating body that oversees food safety and animal welfare standards in slaughter plants. In the broiler industry (meat chickens), birds that do not survive transportation to the plant are referred to as Dead on Arrival or DOA. In order to ensure bird welfare standards, CFIA has set a 1% DOA limit per truck for broiler chickens. If the portion of birds arriving DOA in a single truck exceeds this limit, fines can be imposed following an investigation, with the amount of the fine being dependent on the severity of the infraction. Across Canada, ambient conditions become much more challenging to transport broiler chickens during winter months, and DOA rates tend to rise during November to March. Previous research work has demonstrated temperature and humidity heterogeneity within the loads with extremes in both parameters. Typically during winter transport, cold spots exist near the outsides and rear of the trailer, and hot spots present near the middle core of the trailer. The hypothesis is that the hot spots are caused by limited air penetration into the load and a lack of sufficient ventilation. A general lack of ventilation is believed to be the cause of high humidity levels, leading to condensation forming on cold surfaces and resultant wet birds, which are further challenged to maintain their core body temperature during colder ambient conditions. The typical winter conditions experienced in Saskatchewan and the need to transport broiler chickens year round represent a challenge. The general objective would be to remove moisture from within the load and, ideally, redistribute the heat. The objective of this study is to retrofit existing transportation trailers to facilitate more air exchange. Trailers will be outfitted with data loggers to record the temperature and humidity levels during the duration of transport from the farm to the plant. Retrofitted trailers will be run alongside traditional trailers for comparison. Additionally, bird response will be monitored by measuring the changes in bird core body temperatures, and distributions of dead birds within the trucks will be observed.