1092 PRODUCTION SYSTEMS/Other Species
and a forklift driver, who load up to 7000 birds in
containers onto an articulated trailer. Feeder and
drinker lines are raised, lights are dimmed to keep the
birds calm, and portable netting may be used to contain
and minimize disturbance to birds. The catchers pick
up birds, hold them by one or both legs and place them
in containers. Some companies utilize mechanical
harvesters to automatically catch birds and transfer
them to containers. The feeder and drinker lines that
are raised depend on the house layout and the
percentage of birds taken for processing. If it is a
small pick-up, some farms may raise the centre line of
feeders and take the birds from there. If it is a single-
sex pick-up in a house where male and females are
grown in separate halves of the house, the feeders and
drinkers in that half of the house will be raised. It is
common practice to pick up birds by 5 AM and to
transport birds within 2 hours; however, if the
weather is hot, pick-up should be finished by 4 AM
and birds transported immediately.
The major risk to birds from the time of pick-up is
either overheating or being frost bitten. In hot
weather, the risk of overheating is minimized by pick-
ups occurring mostly in the late afternoon/
evening/night when the thermal load is reduced.
There are some recommendations for fully enclosed,
ventilated and alarmed trucks to allow birds to be
safely transported during the day in cold or hot
weather without exceeding or going below their ther-
mal limits.
Summary
The intensive chicken meat industry uses modern
technology in all aspects of housing and management
to produce chicken meat at least cost. Alternative
production systems use some of the technical devel-
opments made in poultry housing to improve bird
management and reduce the cost of producing free-
range meat chickens.
See also: Infectious diseases of meat animals: Notifi-
able and zoonotic diseases; Production diseases. Pri-
mary production management: Housing and welfare;
Meat production in organic farming. Quality manage-
ment: Farm-level. Species of meat animals: Poultry.
Further Reading
Appleby MC, Hughes BO and Elson HA (1992) Poultry
Production Systems. Behaviour, Management and Wel-
fare. Wallingford Oxon: CAB International.
Barnett, JL, Glatz, PC, Almond, A, et al. (2001) A Welfare
Audit for the Chicken Meat Industry. Rural Industries
Research and Development Corporation, Canberra, Aus-
tralia.
Bell DD and Weaver WD (2001) Commercial Chicken
Meat and Egg Production, 5th edn. Los Angeles: Kluwer.
Bottcher RW, Baughman GR and Magura JR (1996) Field
measurements of fan speed and power use in poultry
houses. Journal of Applied Poultry Research 5(1): 56–62.
Bottcher RW, Czarick M, Lacy MP and Baughman GR
(1992) Evaporative efficiency of a fogging fan for poul-
try. Applied Engineering in Agriculture 8(6): 855–860.
Kilgour R and Dalton DC (1984) Livestock Behaviour: A
Practical Guide. London: Granada.
Leonard JJ, Feddes JJR and McQuitty JB (1984) Air quality
in commercial broiler housing. Canadian Journal of
Engineering 26(1): 65–70.
Weaver WD and Meijerhof R (1991) The effect of different
levels of relative humidity and air movement on litter
condition, ammonia levels, growth and carcass quality
for broiler chickens. Poultry Science 70: 746–755.
Weeks CA, Nicol CJ, Sherwin CM and Kestin SC (1994)
Comparison of the behaviour of broiler chickens in
indoor and free-range environments. Animal Welfare 3:
179–192.
Wood-Gush DGM (1971) The Behaviour of the Domestic
Fowl. Oxford: Heinemann Educational.
Other Species
N G Gregory, Royal Veterinary College and BBSRC,
Hatfield, UK
© 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
When an exotic species is farmed for the first time, it
is usually kept as a curiosity and for making money as
a venture capital investment. In venture capital
investment, the aim is to buy into an enterprise during
its formative years, and to sell the holding once it has
realized an increase in capital or investment value. In
the case of novel meat-producing species, that selling
point often comes before the enterprise has developed
a sustainable revenue stream. Initial revenue comes
from multiplying breeding stock for sale to other
people wanting to enter the industry. Thereafter, an
organized processing and marketing system has to be
established in order to make money from the meat
and co-products. A smooth transition from the initial
to the second phase is critical in deciding whether
there is a future in farming that species for meat
production.
Table 1 summarizes the species other than cattle,
sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, fish and crusta-
cea that are grown on farms or ranches for meat
production. Species that are well-established as meat
producers include geese, goats, rabbits and red deer,
and in these industries the critical transition between
making money out of multiplying breeder stock and