An improved truck design could send chickens to market in greater comfort while giving packers better meat quality.
Henry Classen of the animal and poultry science department at the University of Saskatchewan’s agriculture college is working with Phyllis Shand of the college’s food and bioproduct sciences department and Trever Crowe of the college of engineering to find ways to transport chickens in a more controlled and comfortable environment.
That’s especially important on the Prairies, where temperatures plummet below -30 C in winter and rise above 30 C in summer.
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Researchers installed sensors throughout the truck and inside chickens’ gizzard to monitor temperatures and designed an experimental truck trailer with heat and ventilation systems to monitor temperature and moisture levels.
Classen said research shows a wide variation in temperatures inside a truck, with birds hottest in the centre and coldest at the lower, outside and back edges where air seeps in under the tarps typically draped over the cages.
Tire spray from the road also affects temperature, he added.
“Some parts are very hot,” he said. “Birds produce a lot of heat and moisture.”
The team found truck temperatures varied from – 12 to 27 above on a -20 C day.
Some birds in the cooler sections can compensate by huddling together and away from cold spots, but movement is limited.
Final results of the study are at least a year away, but early indications are that fans installed on trucks, while increasing cost, could keep air moving.
That would be helpful when trucks are sitting idle with a full load of birds and little or no air movement.
“Treat it like a barn,” he said.”A fan draws air on a uniform basis.”
The bird’s body temperature is an important consideration because it affects meat quality.
Research has shown meat becomes darker when birds are exposed to the cold, while pale dry meat results from exposure to high temperatures.
