High temperatures killed 4,000 broilers on a single farm in Brazil in late January. The farm, in Pereiras, Sorocaba, Sao Paulo, had been hit by storms which cut of its electricity supply, meaning ventilation equipment could no longer work. Without ventilation, the chickens dehydrated and died, the local press reports.
The birds were 42 days old and would have gone to slaughter within the following seven days. Some 30,000 birds in total are reared on this particular farm.
Power cuts are thought to have been responsible for the death of 10,000 birds in the same region in October last year.
