Farms.com – Poultry decision tree

[Music Playing] Decision trees, models used to analyze choices and their consequences, are regularly used for decisions relating to cattle and pigs. Now, the poultry industry is adopting this approach to protect bird welfare Population medicine professor Michele Guerin, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and the Ministry of Rural Affairs poultry specialist, Al Dam, And poultry industry counsel executive director, Tim Nelson, led the initiative called “Should this bird be loaded?” It aims to simplify the decision process of whether birds are fit to sent from the farm, to the processing plant The industry has a duty of care to the birds that are in its care And up until this point we didn’t have any objective measure of the statuses of the health of birds prior to transport and we now have. So it’s very relevant to industry particularly in times when there is much more focus on industry, from the consumer about the way in which we treat birds. the other reason that this is important for industry was that we involved industry in the development of the standards and in the decision tree A formal decision making mechanism is needed because discrepancies regularly exist between different groups involved in loading poultry for transport such as producers, catchers, haulers and processors The idea behind the decision tree was to put together a set of guidelines, that everybody could agree on By putting bird welfare first and foremost in economic decision making, all stakeholders are put on an equal playing field This helps promote consistency in bird handling The decision tree is organized by colour, green means load healthy birds Whereas red means do not load birds that are unfit for transport There is also a yellow caution section, which deals with situations such as environmental conditions, flock conditions, and injuries that require assessment from all groups. The tree also includes a list of conditions that catchers should look for as birds are being put onto the truck so that birds do not suffer or die during transport. For example, if a bird is unable to rise on its own, is dull and depressed, weak, or has a broken wing or le g, it shouldn’t be loaded. Accompanying these descriptions, are pictures of birds exhibiting these various signs. Guerin has worked with processing plants, and catching companies to train their managers about recognizing injuries or sickness in birds. Managers then train their staff, to decide which birds should be loaded. With the decision tree and related materials distributed to stakeholders across Ontario, This initiative will ensure that bird welfare is considered a top priority before transport. From the University of Guelph, I’m Andrea Seccafien reporting for SPARK Air.