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Evaluating the Use of Fire Fighting Foam in Mass Poultry Euthanasia

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  054001,  2005 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.19470) @2005
Authors:   M.D. Dawson, P.L. Reyes, E.R. Benson, G.W. Malone, R.L. Alphin, I. Estevez, G.L. Van Wicklen
Keywords:   Avian influenza, broilers, carbon dioxide, euthanasia, poultry

The current control method of many highly pathogenic avian diseases is euthanasia. In the event of avian disease outbreak, the need to euthanize an entire flock can become an issue for the poultry grower and integrator. Currently, there are a limited number of approved procedures suitable for euthanization of entire houses of broiler birds. While these methods are humane and fairly expedient, these procedures are labor intensive and require a significant number of people be involved in the process. This project explores the use of a carbon dioxide (CO2) enriched fire fighting foam system to perform mass euthanasia of poultry. The goal of the system is to provide a more humane, less laborintensive, cost efficient and biosecure alternative to the industry accepted CO2 polyethylene bagging euthanasia method that can be deployed quickly in times of avian disease outbreaks such as the recent avian influenza epidemics (Virginia, 2002; Delmarva, 2004). Preliminary results indicate that the fire fighting foam is as or more effective and humane than conventional CO2 polyethylene bagging.

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