Assessment welfare and carcass quality issues during transport (w/truck design)

This project assesses potential welfare and carcass quality issues during transport of broiler chickens and develops options for proof-of-concept truck modifications to address these issues. For potential welfare issues overseas studies indicate that temperature and distance transported are key variables with respect to overall transport-related mortality. Potential physical harm to carcass quality will be assessed by measuring acceleration in 3 dimensions to assess the risk of physical harm across a range of truck types. These data will be used to generate proof of concept design modifications to minimise harm.