A study was conducted to test the effects of a newly-developed jelly-like transport feed (TF) on body condition and physiological status of egg-laying strain pullets transported for more than 12 hours. Four transport trials were conducted using 440 animals (Lohman Brown, 16-wk-old) loaded in 48
754
721 cm (length
7width
7height) metal wire transport crates. Control pullets (C group) were kept without feed and water and loaded at standard stocking density (8 pullets/crate; 324 sqcm/animal), whereas the experimental group (TF group) had free access to TF and were loaded by using the same density of C group. Birds were placed on commercial lorries and transported for 20 hours in autumn, winter and summer corresponding to different environmental conditions (mild, cold and warm). TF consumption, changes in body weight and body (cloacal) temperature were assessed. Before catching and after transport, blood samples (15 animals/group) were taken from vena ulnaris superficialis and used to determine haematocrit, total protein, sodium, glucose, plasma corticosterone, reactive oxygen metabolites (ROMs), total antioxidant power (OXY-TA) and lysozyme. During the transport, average TF consumption was 69.7 g/animal (13.0 g dry matter) with an metabolizable energy supply of 0.215 MJ/animal. TF group had lower body weight losses (7.0 vs. 5.9%; P<0.01) and lower decrease of body temperature. Moreover, TF pullets showed significantly more favourable haematocrit, total protein, sodium, glucose, plasma corticosterone, ROMs and OXY-TA values. Overall, these findings indicate that TF can be a useful way to maintain satisfactory body condition and physiological status of pullets during long-distance journeys
