Factors affecting mortality risk during transportation of broiler chickens for slaughter in Atlantic Canada

Mortality of broilers during transport and lairage before slaughter represents an economic loss to the poultry industry and a welfare issue that needs to be addressed. In Canada, broilers can be transported long distances and be exposed to environmental factors, such as cold temperatures, that can affect the percentage of dead-on-arrivals or DOAs. Slaughter plant records for loads transported over a 19-month period in 2009-2010 were examined to identify factors affecting mortality risk (% DOA) during transportation from the rearing barn to the slaughter plant. Information from 2007 loads was analysed using a multilevel linear model. Most of the variation in the mortality risk occurred at the load level rather than at the producer or barn level. There were significant effects of bird sex, age and weight, catching team, journey duration and holding barn duration on mortality risk. The following environmental risk factors increased mortality risk: cold temperatures during the journey and in the holding barn, low crate stocking density during journeys at cold temperature and increased trailer temperature when in the holding barn. The analyses identified risk factors that can be used to refine management practices to mitigate some of the mortality risk. Increased mortality in some loads was associated with environmental conditions that caused deaths from hypothermia, whereas in other circumstances, some deaths likely occurred from hyperthermia. The climatic conditions in Atlantic Canada were responsible for significant risk factors that affected the mortality risk. Although refinement of the management practices described in this study, such as reduced journey and lairage durations, and increased crate stocking density can mitigate some of the mortality risk, the extreme cold conditions experienced during some parts of the year exceeded the capacity of the systems of transportation used to provide environmental conditions that minimise mortality.