Investigating transportation parameters of broiler chickens in a transport simulator

在运输模拟器中研究肉鸡的运输参数

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-03726
• 负责人: Crowe, Trever
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: University of Saskatchewan
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=614580
• 关键词: Investigating; transportation; parameters; broiler; chickens

The transportation of meat animals (beef, swine and poultry) is a challenge. Consumers continue to become increasingly aware of how the food they purchase and consume is produced, and they expect food animals to be treated in a humane manner. As such, consumer opinions are influencing how animal agriculture operations and production occur. Although the poultry industry has participated in the development of codes of practice to guide transportation of birds, the majority of these codes were developed using collective wisdom and professional opinions. There is a lack of scientific data available to support and guide the development and maintenance of these codes, leaving the current codes and regulations subject to criticism and debate. These codes of practice will soon be under review, and they will be revised by groups of policy developers, regulatory agencies, processors and producers. This review process and the committees will expect assistance, in the form of research and scientific data, to support the code revisions. Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are leaders in work related to poultry transportation, with a focus on characterizing the environmental conditions and bird responses within transport vehicles during a wide range of typical Canadian prairie weather conditions. Field-based research allows the test conditions to be most accurately replicated, but it is also time consuming, expensive and subject to variations in uncontrollable factors such as ambient temperature and humidity. Further, the environmental conditions present on the Canadian prairies do not encompass the range of conditions that will be present across the country. Ongoing work will be required to support the code revisions, and a lab-based poultry transport simulator is proposed to more efficiently generate data under a wider range of environmental conditions, to allow greater control of exposure conditions and to support more intense monitoring. The first objective of the proposed research (phase 1) would be to identify the typical and ranges of temperature and humidity gradients, air velocities and vibrations experienced at the scale of an individual drawer of broiler chickens within a commercial transport trailer. Next (phase 2), a poultry transport simulator, able to accommodate a single drawer of poultry and re-create the conditions measured in phase 1, will be designed, constructed and evaluated, based on its ability to simulate field-based conditions. Lastly (phase 3), the transport simulator will be used in an initial set of tests to monitor the responses of broiler chickens in terms of live shrink, core body temperature, heart rate, blood parameters, behaviour and meat quality measures, while birds are exposed to a range of environmental conditions. The results of this research (phase 3) will start to define exposure limits for safe and humane transportation of market-age broiler chickens.

肉类动物（牛肉、猪和家禽）的运输是一个挑战。消费者越来越了解他们购买和消费的食物是如何生产的，他们希望食用动物得到人道的对待。因此，消费者的意见正在影响畜牧业的运作和生产。虽然家禽业参与了指导鸟类运输的业务守则的制定，但大多数这些守则都是利用集体智慧和专业意见制定的。缺乏科学数据来支持和指导这些守则的制定和维护，使现行守则和条例受到批评和辩论。不久将对这些业务守则进行审查，并将由政策制定者、管理机构、加工者和生产者小组进行修订。这一审查进程和各委员会将期待以研究和科学数据的形式得到援助，以支持守则的修订。 萨斯喀彻温大学的研究人员是家禽运输相关工作的领导者，重点是在广泛的典型加拿大草原天气条件下表征运输车辆内的环境条件和鸟类反应。基于现场的研究可以最准确地复制测试条件，但它也是耗时的，昂贵的，并受到不可控因素的变化，如环境温度和湿度。此外，加拿大大草原上目前的环境条件不包括全国各地将出现的各种条件。需要持续开展工作，以支持对规范的修订，并建议采用一种基于实验室的家禽运输模拟器，以便在更广泛的环境条件下更有效地生成数据，更好地控制接触条件，并支持更严格的监测。 拟议研究（第1阶段）的第一个目标是确定商业运输拖车内单个肉鸡抽屉的温度和湿度梯度、空气速度和振动的典型和范围。接下来（第2阶段），将根据其模拟现场条件的能力，设计、建造和评估一个能够容纳一抽屉家禽并重现第1阶段测量条件的家禽运输模拟器。最后（第3阶段），运输模拟器将用于最初的一组测试，以监测肉鸡在活收缩、核心体温、心率、血液参数、行为和肉质测量方面的反应，同时将禽类暴露于一系列环境条件下。本研究（第3阶段）的结果将开始确定市场年龄肉鸡安全和人道运输的接触限值。