The global rise in temperatures is intensifying heat stress in farm animals, severely impacting their health, welfare, and productivity across the agricultural sector. In poultry, transport during even moderately warm days leads to significant mortality; between two and eight million chickens die annually in Spain alone, depending on the frequency of hot days, resulting in economic losses of billions of euros worldwide.
Despite the scale of this issue, current mitigation strategies remain limited, non-scalable, and suboptimal, including night-time transport, water spraying, or the development of refrigerated trucks, all of which are inefficient and economically unviable for large-scale implementation.
This project aims to identify and validate natural, safe compounds that can prevent the onset of heat stress and significantly reduce mortality during poultry transport. Delivering such solutions would drastically enhance the efficiency and sustainability of the poultry industry by reducing animal loss, lowering the need for overproduction, cutting CO₂ emissions, and improving both animal welfare and overall productivity.
