Economic losses due to live weight shrinkage and mortality during the broiler transport

The aim of this study is to determine the economic impact of live weight losses and mortality due to transport of broilers, from farms under contract production to the slaughterhouse and to analyse the total cost differences between different groups of total loading and transport durations in Turkey. Data concerning 846 transports from an integration's different farms to its slaughterhouse in May 2012 were collected and examined thoroughly for the purpose of this study. Data were clustered into 6 different groups according to their total loading and transport durations. These groups were defined as; group I 0-120 min, group II 121-240 mm, group III 241-360 mm, group IV 361-480 min, group V 481-600 mm, group VI 600 min and more. Mortality rate in each group was found to be 0.29%, 0.38%, 0.40 %, 0.43 %, 0.42%, and 0.46%, respectively. On the other hand, average live weight loss during transport in each group was determined to be 4.33%, 4.95%, 5.55%, 5.73%, 6.02% and 6.63%, in the given order. The results of the analyse show that the average slaughtering age of the transported chickens are 42 days, average loading density in trucks are 3154 chickens per truck, and the average economic loss due to live weight loss and mortality per transport is TL 136.29. Economic loss due to the transport of 2.669.059 chickens was calculated as TL 115.300 in total. As a result, this study clearly shows that the sector needs more diversified scientific researches on the topic, in particular when the increase in production capacity of the sector in recent years, the localisation and distribution of farms of integrations, and apart from the transport duration the impact of distance, seasonal conditions, loading density, road characteristics, type of the vehicle and its velocity on losses due to transport are taken into consideration.