Conclusions
The surveyed commercial poultry production units around the UAE are located in a 13.29% of the national land close to major cities with high population density. Within a 20 km buffer of the large cities, 4 farms are intersecting with inside the residential areas boarders, furthermore Al-Ain zoo is already very close to highly populated areas in Al-Ain city.
It was found that distances between farms ranged from 2.5 to 177.7 km where most of the farms are located on or very close to national highways. Google Earth® was used to study the historical changes in distance between one poultry farm and the surrounding residential area between 2003 and 2010.
Having more complete GIS map for poultry farms is needed in order to manage poultry industry in a more accurate way. The developed map is not complete and should be integrated to weather maps to provide an excellent tool to handle in case outbreaks erupted and to help authorities a professional tool to organize future projects in this field considering the fast growing residential areas and urban development. Serious decisions should be taken by local authorities to remove poultry farms from urban areas to protect investments, society and the environment.