Broilers face transport stress due to Finland’s worst village road in Satakunta

Broilers from Marianne Isotalo-Ojala’s farm make bi-weekly trips to the Rauma slaughterhouse, located along the bumpy Vanhakyläntie road in Satakunta, Finland. This road garnered notoriety recently, winning the title of Finland’s worst village road, highlighting the growing repair debt of rural roads and their impact on everyday travel.

The Vanhakyläntie is home to two Kariniemen family farms and a large pig farm. Additionally, it supports agricultural production for Finland’s only sugar factory, Sucroks, as well as starch potatoes for Finnamyl and raw materials for the food industry provided to Apetit.

The image capturing this dubious honor was taken by Isotalo-Ojala, who humorously refers to the road as a “bumpy ride for animal transports.” Feedback from the slaughterhouse indicates that during transportation, broilers have been unsettled, often ending up at one end of their module rather than distributed evenly at loading.

Isotalo-Ojala strictly adheres to animal welfare regulations on her farm. However, the road’s potholes cause considerable jolting for the truck and trailer, inducing stress in the birds just before they reach their destination. “We aim to raise stress-free broilers, but they experience this kind of stress in the last moments of transport, which surely shows at the slaughterhouse,” she states.

The responsibility for Vanhakyläntie’s repairs lies with the government. Pekka Puuronen, operations manager at the Varsinais-Suomi ELY Center, explains that while the road has been maintained through patching, it is inadequate for heavy traffic or local transport demands. The lack of funds for low-traffic road repairs complicates the issue, as fewer than 100 vehicles travel Vanhakyläntie daily, making it hard to prioritize this road for repairs. “It will certainly remain challenging, but we will try our best,” Puuronen adds.