HEAL ▶▶▶TH
broiler. Losses may vary due to the extent of the lesion and the degree or intensity of the pathology, whether it affects the musculature or not. The reduction in slaughterhouse speed lines and the increase in labour costs due to reprocess- ing to adjust the availability of the raw material and the asso- ciated operational procedures to guarantee the product’s standards, also add to the losses. One of the most important causes of carcass condemnation is faecal and bilair contamination during evisceration in the slaughterhouse. The associated losses involve disposal of meat, offal and the risk of greater microbiological contamina- tion of by-products. In turn, impacting consumer safety and label reputation, with a greater probability of product recall. Poor flock uniformity impacts the process stability during slaughter, increasing the risk of intestinal rupture and sani- tary condemnation. The subsequent and mandatory line speed reduction is made to reduce the contamination risk and thus minimise average meat losses to 0.8-1.2kg/affected broiler. Research by Kurukulsuriya in 2016 showed an in- creased connection between E. coli contamination and flocks affected by IBD. In this context, the correct way to represent the impact of poultry health and integrity during processing in the slaugh- terhouse will be through quantification of the economic im- pact of affected poultry flocks. The best way to approach this is through a consideration of condemnation rates in carcass weight, the time when the sanitary processing line stops, the reduction in the speed of slaughter lines and, therefore, the impact on the value of products.
Line speed versus costs Slaughter line speed and process stability will result from flock uniformity expressed through growth. The coefficient of variation (CV%) depends on many factors, such sex, nutrition, vaccination, health and density. Research suggests that un- derlying factors affect broilers’ general health status and growth rate in the flock, resulting in poorer uniformity at slaughter. Poultry processing plants demand uniform flocks within the desired weight range as a very important criterion for the modern distribution network and have suggested that a CV of less than 10% would be acceptable. In the poultry in- dustry by the end of the rearing period a commercial flock is expected to show uniformity in excess of 85% and a CV of less than 8%, with improved performance and welfare.
Table 2 – Benefits of vaccinated flocks. Slaughterhouse 1
Breast yield Carcass yield Condemnation
Partial condemnation 28
0.2% 0.4%
No difference -0.12%
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 2, 2021
A study by Hughes presented a reasonable benchmark for commercial flock uniformity expressed as CV% in average live weight at 5, 6 and 7 weeks of age for male and female birds, ranging from 6.1-8.8%. As a key performance indicator (KPI), carcass uniformity is an important economic driver in com- mercial practice, leading to the supply of carcasses within a narrow weight range. Failure to meet these specifications can result in severe economic losses for the processor, given that it has been estimated that 5% of all chicken meat is downgraded by 40% due to out-of-range specification.
Slaughterhouse 2 0.10% 0.30% -0.02 -0.01
Disease control and improved performance Vaccination plays an important role in Gumboro disease con- trol. The vaccination should ‘protect’ chickens against clinical signs following infection and ‘prevent’ the disease by decreas- ing the population of Gumboro virus shed and significantly reducing the risk of virus variants emerging. In other words, the objective of a sound Gumboro vaccination programme should to be to halt the Gumboro cycle. The vaccination pro- gramme must be carefully tailored to achieve this. Other fac- tors that need to be observed for optimum short and long- term control of Gumboro disease include biosecurity, cleaning and disinfection, plus passive immunity. Field data collected from experiments performed by Ceva around the world, covering all the continents and different production practices and sanitary contexts, showed the effi- cacy of vaccination with Transmune, blocking the bursa with the controlled vaccine strain and thus, controlling the dis- ease and preventing the Gumboro virus from infecting new flocks. Some benefits come from the field and some from the slaughterhouse. But the most important one is that the broiler flock will be better protected and able to stay healthy. And once a flock is healthy, it can produce good results. The effects observed in the slaughterhouse due to controlling Gumboro disease through vaccination, include improved uniformity, a stable line speed, increased carcass yield and improved profitability per broiler. Table 2 provides some ex- amples of improvements in the slaughterhouse (in breast and carcass yield, condemnation and partial condemnation rates) in broiler flocks vaccinated with Transmune. Another benefit that can be observed is the greater weight uniformity in flocks. Once Gumboro disease is under control, the broiler can perform better, achieving its potential based on genetics and nutritional strategy. As a direct result the slaughter line will run more uniformly while increasing the line processing speed and rate for the entire slaughter pro- cess. Thus enabling the planned or nominal slaughter line speed to be maintained, ensuring optimum operational prof- itability. In summary, the benefit of Gumboro disease control through vaccination is that it will maintain consistency, ho- mogeneity and regularity during the entire broiler produc- tion chain while protecting the bird against clinical and sub-clinical infections.
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