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.