Effects of transport and lairage on mortality, liveweight loss and carcass quality in broiler chickens

Before broiler chickens are slaughtered, they are subjected to an array of events such as feed the withdrawal of feed, catching, loading into crates or coops, and transportation to a processing plant. After transportation, the birds are unloaded in a holding area and subjected to a variable lairage time till the moment of slaughter. Major problems associated with ante mortem factors have been associated with mortality (birds that died between catching and the moment of slaughter or “dead on arrival”, DOA), live weight loss as well as carcass defects (haemorrhages, bruises and broken bones) and meat quality attributes such as colour, texture, and functional properties (Fletcher, 1991; Petracci et al., 2001; Barbut, 2002; Nijdam et al., 2004). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of transport and lairage times on mortality, live weight loss and carcass quality in broiler chickens