About
Barns and stables collectively represent any commercial livestock housing, from hen houses to cattle barns. The housing system plays an important role in the maintenance of animal health and wellbeing; ease of sanitation is a major consideration.
Poultry operations use both caged and cage-free systems as well as outdoor free-range systems, each bringing its own particular challenges when it comes to bird health. In cage-free systems, the main concerns affecting mortality are disease transmission and severe feather pecking. Animals housed this way also tend to have an increased parasite load and those with access outdoors can sometimes fall victim to predation.
The abundant waste produced by large livestock, such as hogs and cattle, and the close quarters in which they are generally housed provide an ideal environment for nuisance pests and parasites to develop and potentially spread disease.