Poultry Worker Safety Takes a Step Forward

Ontario poultry workers who catch and load birds for market have a new workplace safety tool at their disposal.

Traditionally, empty shipping crates have been used as makeshift steps between a barn and a loading platform. This creates a safety hazard for catching crews when the crates became wet or icy, and results in increased crate damage.

There was no commercially available alternative, so the Poultry Service Association (PSA) turned to Growing Forward 2 to help find a solution to this challenge.

In conjunction with four commercial poultry catching companies, PSA designed, engineered, fabricated and field-tested a portable, durable, and safe step to be used in place of the empty poultry crates.

The resulting step is light-weight and can easily be transported in crew vans, has a slip-resistant surface and is non-corroding, can withstand repeated washing and works even on uneven ground.
Because different catching companies and crews have different step needs depending on different types of vans, varying barn configurations and transporter requirements, PSA was able to provide its project participants with some flexibility in step design.

Two of the four companies, which represent 85 – 90 per cent of Ontario’s poultry catching crews, work with the step in commercial poultry operations.

Thanks to support from Growing Forward 2, the PSA was able to undertake development and testing of the new step on behalf of the entire poultry catching industry – work that wouldn’t have been possible for the individual companies to undertake on their own.

Source: AAC