Ontario poultry industrys GPS trial

Kitchener, Ontario - The Ontario poultry industry has begun a trial thats tracking 22 service-industry vehicles wherever they go.

One of the aims is to learn more about containing an outbreak of a highly-contagious foreign animal disease, such as avian influenza.

The 22 vehicles each has a Global Positioning System device so they can be tracked, and the 22 represent seven different services, such as feed mills, hatcheries, live bird haulers, egg-grading stations and deadstock removal.

The owners of the trucks will be able to track their vehicles, but none of them will be able to track others vehicles. Only the central command, which is a joint effort of Ontarios poultry marketing boards, will be able to track them all.

The information is confidential, stressed Ian Richardson of eBiz Consultants when he spoke to the 37th annual Poultry Innovations Conference here recently.

The tracking trials will be done by Christmas, then the industry will conduct a simulation of a disease outbreak on one farm and watch to see how and where it might spread.

Richardson said they want to see where and how often vehicles cross paths, creating an opportunity for diseases to transfer.

A report is due in April.

While disease control is the main aim of the exercise, Richardson said there are opportunities here for individual companies and the industry to reduce costs and improve efficiencies.

One example he cited is knowing how long feed trucks idle while running augers at the farm. That fuel is eligible for a tax break, he said, and the tracking data will show exactly where and how long these trucks are idling.

He showed a map of southwestern Ontario to show how colour coding identifies trucks that are running, but idling, trucks that are moving and in which direction and how fast, and trucks that are sitting with the engine off.

Richardsons company completed a previous project to develop standard operating procedures (STOPS) for seven poultry-industry service sectors.

He said that information will be updated and similar STOPS will be developed for additional service sectors.

The work is funded by a combination of governments, companies and marketing boards.