Effects of lairage time on body temperature and glycogen reserves of broiler chickens held in transport modules

Abstract

Commercial broiler chickens killed in two processing plants, one in the south of England, the other in Scotland, in two seasons (winter and summer) and on two occasions in each season, were used to investigate the effects of killing the birds immediately on arrival or holding them in lairage for one, two, three or four hours. The two most important consequences of holding the birds in lairage were that their body temperature increased and their liver glycogen was depleted. The body temperature increased with the time they were held in lairage, although most of the increase occurred in the first hour and the increase was greater in summer when ambient temperatures were higher. Liver glycogen depletion became apparent after about one to two hours in lairage. No evidence was obtained that the birds were significantly dehydrated or physically stressed by being kept longer in lairage.

Effects of transport distance and the season of the year on death rates among hens and roosters in transport to poultry processing plants in the Czech Republic in the period from 1997 to 2004

“…Poor welfare during hen and rooster transport may result in an increase in the number of birds dead or injured on arrival at the slaughterhouse (Knowles and Broom, 1990), change in body temperature (Warriss et al, 1999), alterations in bio- (Savenije et al, 2002;Nijdam et al, 2005), or haematological indices of stress loads (Mitchell et al, 1992). The mean DOA percentage of hens and roosters found in our study was 0.925%.…”

“…Warriss et al (1999) studied the effects of lairage time on body temperature and glycogen reserves of broiler chickens held in transport modules. They found that the body temperature of broilers increased with the time they were held in lairage.…”

Injury and mortality in broilers during handling and transport to slaughter

“…During fasting, birds have to mobilise their body energy reserves. If the total duration of pre-loading fasting, loading, transport, and lairage is too long, body energy reserves can become exhausted, thereby increasing the risk of hypothermia and death (Warriss et al 1999;Dadgar et al 2011Dadgar et al , 2012Caffrey et al 2017). During fasting, energy required for metabolism is obtained initially from carbohydrates and then by catabolism of fat and proteins into glucose (Riesenfeld et al 1981).…”

“…If in a holding barn, the birds remain in crates on the trailer the, provision of adequate ventilation to all of the birds in the load can be challenging. The temperature within the crates can rise above the external temperature and cause increases in the rectal temperature of the birds (Hunter et al 1998;Warriss et al 1999). In warm conditions, an evaporative cooling system in addition to fan ventilation can be beneficial in reducing mortality in holding barns (Shackelford et al 1984).…”

Concentraciones de glucemia e insulinemia en pollos broilers machos y hembras de cuatro semanas de edad y su relación con el peso

“…La glucosa se une al transportador, cambia su conformación y transporta la glucosa para ser transportada; en el hígado de los pollos de engorde se han reportado genes de las isoformas de transportadores de glucosa (GLUT 1 y 2); sin embargo, las concentraciones de proteína GLUT 1 son indetectables en el hígado de los pollos que sugieren que esto puede no ser un transportador importante para esta ave (15). El hígado aviar aporta de manera significativa a la producción de las cantidades circulantes de glucosa y es sensible a la disminución de la ingesta de alimentos, de tal manera que en un ayuno de 6 a 24 horas se disminuyen las concentraciones de glucóge-no hepático y aumenta la gluconeogénesis (16,17). Para el caso del sistema cotransporte de glucosa acoplado al sodio, estos se encuentran ubicados en el epitelio intestinal y en el epitelio de los túbulos contorneados proximal y distal.…”