Table 2.
Climatic and general circumstances and conditions with respective definitions assessed at each of the 24 loadings.
| Variable | Information or definition |
|---|---|
| Number of animals | Total number of animals that were loaded during the entire loading time |
| Antibiotic therapy | No/yes |
| Therapy recurrence | Number of treatments >1 (no/yes) |
| Parental flocks | Week of production |
| Number of working people | Number of persons involved in loading per 10,000 broilers |
| Expertise of staff | Number of persons in the team with officially certified expertise by a veterinary office (includes agricultural education or education with exam by veterinary office) (§ 17, German Order on the Protection of Animals and the Keeping of Production Animals, 2006); evaluated binomially (yes/no) for each involved person |
| Loading time | Time in hours for entire loading of barn |
| Loading speed | Animals per hour |
| Speed of the conveyor belt | Meter per second (Testo 470 rotation speed control counter, Testo North America, West Chester, PA), measurement of the speed of 4 of the 5 conveyor belts (sequence of collection, transversal, small, main, and caging belts) 3 times during each loading (the small belt was not accessible) |
| Loading time per animal | Seconds Mechanical catching: t = V/l (t = time in seconds, V = speed of conveyor belt in m/s, l = length of conveyor belt in meters), standstill of the conveyor belt during adjustment of rotary head is not considered Manual catching: time (seconds) from lifting of broiler by catcher till depositing in container, measurement 8 times during each loading |
| Sound level | dB (Sound Level Meter, PCE 322A, PCE Instruments UK Ltd, UK), 3 times during each loading near the animals on the ground |
| Light | lux (LMT Pocket-Lux 2B, LMT Lichtmesstechnik GmbH, Berlin, Germany) 3 times during each loading using a 6-sided-measuring system |
| Climatic data collection: | |
| Season | 4 seasons |
| 1 = December 2016/January 2017 | |
| 2 = February/March 2017 | |
| 3 = April/May 2017 | |
| 4 = June/July/August 2017 | |
| Temperature | 4 categories, outside temperature |
| 1 = <0°C | |
| 2 = 1°C–10°C | |
| 3 = 11°C–20°C | |
| 4 = >20°C recorded by data logger (LogBox RHT, B + B Thermo-Technik GmbH, Donaueschingen, Germany) | |
| Time of the day | 4 categories |
| 1 = loading at night | |
| 2 = loading at daytime | |
| 3 = loading at twilight (sunrise/sunset) | |
| 4 = loading during the night, twilight and daytime |