EVALUATION OF FOAM-BASED MASS DEPOPULATION METHODOLOGY FOR FLOOR-REARED MEAT-TYPE POULTRY OPERATIONS

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Current methods of control for quick spreading, highly contagious poultry diseases, such as avian influenza (AI)or Exotic Newcastle, require large numbers of poultry to be rapidly killed to prevent further spread. On-farm depopulation,rather than conventional slaughter at a processing plant, is preferred to avoid the spread of potentially zoonotic agents. Ittherefore makes sense to depopulate or euthanize the birds as soon as possible and on site. In these circumstances, the mostappropriate technique that minimizes human and animal health concerns should be used. The options for mass depopulationare limited, as reported by the 2000 Report of the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia (AVMA, 2001). While these methods are humaneand fairly expedient, these procedures are labor intensive and require a significant number of people be involved in theprocess. This project explores the use of a carbon dioxide (CO2) enriched fire fighting foam system to perform mass emergencydepopulation of poultry. The method utilizes a blanket of high expansion foam enriched with carbon dioxide. In fourexperimental trials, the method has been shown to provide effective depopulation. The foam with varying concentrations ofcarbon dioxide was directly compared to a currently industry accepted CO2-polyethylene tent method, which uses overlappinglayers of polyethylene to cover birds and then gassing with carbon dioxide. The foam and polyethylene tent methods resultedin death in less than 3 min (CO2-polyethylene 2:08 min, foam with CO2 2:09 min, and foam without CO2 2:54 min).Preliminary results indicate that the fire fighting foam is as effective or more effective than conventional CO2-polyethylenetent method.