Negative Trends in Transport-related Mortality Rates in Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The high incidence of deaths during transport for slaughter is associated with poor welfare and represents a considerable loss to the poultry industry. In the period from 2009 to 2014, all shipments of broiler chickens to poultry processing plants were monitored in the Czech Republic and the numbers of chickens transported and those dying as a result of their transport were recorded and analysed. Overall transport-related mortality of broiler chickens transported for slaughter in the Czech Republic was 0.37%. It ranged from 0.31% to 0.72%, the increase approximately corresponding to the increasing transport distance. Statistically highly significant (p<0.001) differences were found when comparing transport-related mortality rates in individual seasons of the year. The greatest mortality (0.55%) was associated with transports carried out in winter months whereas the lowest death losses (0.30%) were found in chickens transported for slaughter in summer months. Our study revealed greater transport-related mortality rates in broiler chickens transported for slaughter in the Czech Republic than expected when considering earlier studies. The most pronounced increases were found in transports for shorter distances and in winter months. However, an increase was found at all transport distances monitored except for distances exceeding 300 km and all seasons except for summer. Furthermore, a general increasing tendency in chicken losses during the monitored period was found. The particularly alarming finding is that the mortality of broiler chickens being transported to processing plants has been showing a long-term increasing tendency over the last two decades. Further research should focus on the identification of specific factors leading to such high and growing mortality rates and developing practical guidelines to improve the welfare of the birds in transit accordingly.

Transport losses in finisher pigs: impact of transport distance and season of the year

“…Conversely, a linear relationship between journey length and transport stress resulting to increased death losses with increasing transport distance was found within the range of distances for which are pigs transported in the Czech Republic. Same negative impact of increasing transport distance on increasing death losses associated with transport has been reported in broiler chickens [20]. …”

Mortality in rabbits transported for slaughter

“…They revealed that death losses in rabbits exceeded those in most other species of animals kept for meat production. In fact, greater mortality rates (0.37%) were found only in broiler chickens (Vecerek, Voslarova, Conte, Vecerkova, & Bedanova, ). Otherwise, the preslaughter mortality of rabbits was greater than that recorded in swine (0.07%, Voslarova, Vecerek, Passantino, Chloupek, & Bedanova, ) and bovine animals (0.02%, Simova, Voslarova, Passantino, Bedanova, & Vecerek, ; Simova et al., ), as well as in poultry with the exception of broiler chickens, that is ducks (0.08%, Voslarova, Hytychova, Vecerek, Nenadovic, & Bedanova, ) and turkeys (0.15%, Machovcova et al., ).…”

Effects of Transportation Distance, Slaughter Age, and Seasonal Factors on Total Losses in Broiler Chickens

“…In a study conducted in the Czech Republic by Vecerek et al (2016), transport-related mortality rate ranged between 0.31% and 0.72% in all broiler transports. The effects of season and transport distance on mortality were statistically significant (p<0.001) and the highest mortality occurred during the winter months (0.55%) and for transportation distances longer than 300 km (0.72%).…”

“…Environmental factors, including temperature and humidity (Warriss et al, 2005; Chauvin et al, 2011), season and time of the day (Moran & Bilgili, 1995;Petracci et al, 2006;Vecerek et al, 2006;Drain et al, 2007;Voslarova et al, 2007;Elsayed, 2014), distance between the poultry farm and the processing plant (Nijdamet al, 2004;Voslarova et al, 2007;Ondrasovicova et al, 2008;Sowinska et al, 2013;Vecerek et al, 2016), and transportation time (Bayliss & Hinton, 1990;Warriss et al,1992;Nijdam et al, 2004;Bianchi et al, 2005) also influence production losses.…”

“…Economic losses in broiler production occur particularly during catching of the broilers on the farms, loading into vehicles, transportation conditions, and lairage time in the processing plant (Warriss et al, 1992;Nijdam et al, 2004;Schwartzkopf-Genswein et al, 2012;Vieira et al, 2015;Vecerek et al 2016).…”