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370 EAAP – 76th Annual Meeting, Innsbruck, Austria, 2025 Session 32 Theatre 1 Incorporating the pre-slaughter phase into chicken welfare monitoring and labelling schemes F. Tuyttens1,2, F. Delanglez1,2, K. Van Langeveld1,2, A. Watteyn1, N. Van Noten1, A. De Visscher1, J. Maselyne1 1 ILVO (Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food), Burg. van Gansberghelaan 119, 9090 Merelbeke-Melle, Belgium, 2 Ghent University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Salisburylaan 133, 9090 Merelbeke-Melle, Belgium Ideally, animal welfare labelling results in better informing stakeholders and improving the quality of the animals’ entire lifespan, including the last phase when they are being depopulated, transported and eventually slaughtered. In the poultry industry, this pre-slaughter phase is critical for both animal welfare and for preventing production losses (due to mortality, weight loss and carcass rejections). Recent and ongoing research will be presented to document which welfare problems occur during which part of the pre-slaughter phase, what the risk factors are for these welfare problems, and the pros and cons of different catching & crating methods (inverted manual, upright manual vs mechanical catching). Examples will be provided of cost-efficient manual or automated tools for large-scale monitoring of bird welfare during pre-slaughter. Monitoring data can subsequently be used to drive improvements in poultry welfare by a) providing feed-back (e.g. benchmarking) to responsible parties (farmer, catching team, transporter, slaughterhouse), b) a punishment or reward system depending on whether or not target values are met, and c) incorporating this information into a welfare label. Session 32 Theatre 2 The effect of pre-transport respiratory health status, breed, and sex on post-transport respiratory health status measured by thoracic ultrasonography and clinical respiratory scoring L. Van Dijk1,2, S. Siegmann1,3, N. Field1, K. Sugrue1, C. Van Reenen3, E. Bokkers3, G. Sayers2, M. Conneely1 1 Teagasc Moorepark, Animal Bioscience, Moorepark, P61 C996 Fermoy, Ireland, 2 Munster Technological University, Veterinary Bioscience, South Campus, V92 CX88 Tralee, Ireland, 3 Wageningen University and Research, Animal Production Systems Group, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, 6708 PB Wageningen, Netherlands Many factors may influence the predisposition of unweaned calves to developing respiratory disease post transport. These include their management, pre-transport health status, breed and sex. This study aimed to assess the effect of predisposing factors (pre-transport health, breed, sex) on the post-transport respiratory disease development of calves transported from Ireland to The Netherlands. The respiratory status of calves (n = 65) was assessed by thoracic ultrasound (TUS; score 0 (healthy) to 3 (severe pathology)) and clinical respiratory score (CRS; score 0 (healthy) to 7 (severe symptoms)) recorded pre-transport at the dairy farm or livestock market of origin, and again on arrival, and 1-, 2-, and 3-weeks post arrival at the veal farm in The Netherlands. Post-transport respiratory disease status was recorded as the highest TUS (TUSpost), or highest CRS (CRSpost) between arrival and 3 weeks post arrival. Linear mixed models were used to analyse the effect of predisposing factors (pre-transport TUS (TUSpre), pre-transport CRS (CRSpre), breed, and sex) on post-transport health (TUSpost or CRSpost). TUSpost were more severe for calves with a TUSpre of 2 than for calves with a TUSpre of 0 (p < 0.01) and tended to be more severe for calves with a TUSpre of 1 than for calves with a TUSpre of 0 (p = 0.07). CRSpre did not affect TUSpost. Friesian calves had more severe TUSpost than Beef*Friesian calves, and female calves had more severe TUSpost than male calves (both p = 0.02). CRSpost was not affected by TUSpre, CRSpre, or sex, but Friesian calves had more severe CRSpost than Beef*Friesian calves (p = 0.01). In conclusion, calves with more severe TUSpre showed more severe scores post-transport, and Friesian calves were at higher risk of developing respiratory disease diagnosed by TUS or CRS post-transport, while sex had a minor but clear effect on post-transport TUS development.
