Handling Day-Old Chicks at Airports with Minimal Temperature Fluctuations
For poultry breeding companies, transporting poultry by air is not uncommon. Shipments of significant value are transported to hatcheries around the world. With grandparent stock and great grandparent stock prices being at the highest end of the spectrum, the potential loss can be significant.
Challenges at the Airport
Airport cargo handlers dealing with fragile day-old chicks or other temperature sensitive live animals, face a number of challenges. Chicks are commonly transported to the airport by truck. Since trucks are not allowed on the tarmac, day-old chicks leave the climatized space of the truck relatively soon in the transferral process. Once they are placed onto PMC and PLA pallets, cargo handlers only have limited possibilities to protect the day-old chicks from temperature fluctuations. The greatest deviations in temperature are seen when chicks are held at the airport. Due to delayed flights or mandatory custom checks, chicks are potentially faced with waiting times from 4 up to 10 hours. The well-being and quality of chicks is compromized by this and it can result in loss of quality, directly or within the first week of arrival. It goes beyond saying that the impact on animal welfare is huge and reflects to both the freight handler as well as the airport. Airside transport and storage is still a very weak link in the poultry logistics chain and the impact of animal welfare related news on both the poultry industry as well as airside cargo handling is significant.
The Heering Airside Trailer for handling live animals
The Heering Airside Trailer is designed especially for cargo handling of poultry at airports. The unit is fully climatized just like our other chick transport solutions. Not only is the temperature coordinated precisely, the evenly distributed airflow guarantees the necessary ventilation in any condition. Chicks or other live animals are therefore stored in the right conditions from the moment they are placed onto PMC/PLA pallets until they arrive at the airplane to be boarded. The units can easily be maneuvered across the airport by an airport pulley or tug. The Heering Airside Trailers are apportioned to fit PMC and PLA pallets and can also be built in different sizes. After usage, the unit can quickly and easily be cleaned.
Specialized Handling, Fewer Complications
With the use of the Heering Airside Trailer, day-old chicks spend less time in non climatized areas at airports. Harmful effects caused by unconditioned handling will decrease, which is beneficial to all parties involved. For hatcheries, the risk of fatal cases is lower and cargo handlers can offer a more specialized form of handling day-old chicks.
Do you want to learn more about the Heering Airside Trailer and how it can benefit your business? Feel free to get in touch with one of our specialists.