Benson Eric R, Weiher Jaclyn A, Alphin Robert L, Farnell Morgan, Hougentogler Daniel P
Department of Animal and Food Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
Department of Poultry Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2018 Apr 24;8(5):61. doi: 10.3390/ani8050061.
Outbreaks of avian influenza (AI) and other highly contagious poultry diseases continue to be a concern for those involved in the poultry industry. In the situation of an outbreak, emergency depopulation of the birds involved is necessary. In this project, two compressed air foam systems (CAFS) were evaluated for mass emergency depopulation of layer hens in a manure belt equipped cage system. In both experiments, a randomized block design was used with multiple commercial layer hens treated with one of three randomly selected depopulation methods: CAFS, CAFS with CO₂ gas, and CO₂ gas. In Experiment 1, a Rowe manufactured CAFS was used, a selection of birds were instrumented, and the time to unconsciousness, brain death, altered terminal cardiac activity and motion cessation were recorded. CAFS with and without CO₂ was faster to unconsciousness, however, the other parameters were not statistically significant. In Experiment 2, a custom Hale based CAFS was used to evaluate the impact of bird age, a selection of birds were instrumented, and the time to motion cessation was recorded. The difference in time to cessation of movement between pullets and spent hens using CAFS was not statistically significant. Both CAFS depopulate caged layers, however, there was no benefit to including CO₂.
禽流感（AI）及其他高传染性家禽疾病的爆发，仍然是家禽行业相关人士所担忧的问题。在疫情爆发的情况下，对受感染禽类进行紧急扑杀是必要的。在本项目中，对两种压缩空气泡沫系统（CAFS）进行了评估，以确定其在配备粪便带的笼养系统中对蛋鸡进行大规模紧急扑杀的效果。在两个实验中，均采用随机区组设计，对多只商用蛋鸡使用三种随机选择的扑杀方法之一进行处理：CAFS、含二氧化碳气体的CAFS和二氧化碳气体。在实验1中，使用了Rowe公司生产的CAFS，对部分禽类进行了仪器监测，并记录了失去意识、脑死亡、末期心脏活动改变和停止运动的时间。含二氧化碳和不含二氧化碳的CAFS导致失去意识的速度更快，然而，其他参数在统计学上并不显著。在实验2中，使用了基于Hale定制的CAFS来评估禽类年龄的影响，对部分禽类进行了仪器监测，并记录了停止运动的时间。使用CAFS时，青年母鸡和产蛋后期母鸡停止运动的时间差异在统计学上并不显著。两种CAFS都能对笼养蛋鸡进行扑杀，然而，添加二氧化碳并没有益处。
