The Effect of Environmentally Modified and Conventional Housing Types on Broiler Shrinkage

Three experiments were conducted to determine the influence of environmentally modified versus conventional curtain sided housing on broiler shrinkage. Broilers were reared on the same commercial diet, feeding schedule, and lighting program in either a windowless environmentally modified house or a conventional curtain-sided house. At 50 days of age the birds were caught at 0330 (Experiment 1), 0930 (Experiment 2), or 0300 hr (Experiment 3), weighed, and cooped. The birds were then weighed every 2 hr for 12 hr to determine shrink loss after which they were processed to determine yield in Experiments 1 and 3. The broilers reared in the environmentally modified house had a significantly greater weight loss (shrinkage) over the 12-hr period when caught at night than did the broilers reared in the curtain-sided house. There were no significant differences between the housing types when the birds were caught during the day. It appears that birds in the environmentally modified house exhibited greater shrink due to different water and feed consumption patterns and a more pronounced effect due to the stress of catching.