A cross-sectional study of ownership of backyard poultry in two areas of Palmerston North, New Zealand

Figures & data

Figure 1. Maps showing (a) the boundaries of Palmerston North city (x = central business district) and the location of two study areas (A = urban area; B = urban-rural fringe area) relative to the city boundaries, and locations of the poultry-positive (

) and -negative (

) land parcels in mesh-blocks comprising (b) the urban area, and (c) urban-rural fringe area.

Table 1. Details of the total number of land parcels, the number of land parcels surveyed, and the number of surveyed land parcels with backyard poultry in urban and urban-rural fringe areas within and adjacent to the city of Palmerston North.

Variable	Area		Total
	Urban	Urban-rural
Study area (km^2)	20.1	16.4	36.5
Land parcel area (ha)	0.07 (0.01, 94.4)^a	4.1 (0.01, 73.1)^a	0.07 (0.01, 94.4)^a
Total number of land parcels
Small (10–650 m^2)	1,892	59	1,951
Medium (650–780 m^2)	1,837	55	1,892
Large (>780 m^2)	1,837	58	1,895
Total	5,566	172	5,738
Number of surveyed land parcels
Small (10–650 m^2)	136	1	137
Medium (650–780 m^2)	109	0	109
Large (>780 m^2)	130	73	203
Total	375	74	449
Surveyed parcels with poultry
Small (10–650 m^2)	2	0	2
Medium (650–780 m^2)	0	0	0
Large (>780 m^2)	4	14	18
Total	6	14	20
Poultry-positive parcels per km^2	0.30	0.85	0.55
^a Median (first quartile, third quartile)

Table 2. Details of the number of birds kept, and management of backyard poultry in urban and urban-rural fringe areas within and adjacent to the city of Palmerston North.

Variable	Area			P-value^a
	Urban	Urban-rural	Total
Number of birds kept	4 (1, 15)^b	6 (1, 33)^b	6 (1, 33)^b	0.32
Poultry per km^2	1.84	8.24	4.71
Hours free-range per day	14 (0, 24)^b	12 (0, 24)^b	12 (0, 24)^b	1.00
Reason poultry kept				0.15
Food for home use	2	8	10
Hobby	0	3	3
Commercial	0	1	1
As pets	4	2	6
Total	6	14	20
Housing				0.12
Shed (free-range during day)	2	11	13
Continuous free-range	4	3	7
Total	6	14	20
Disposal of carcasses				0.48
Burial	4	11	15
Rubbish dump	0	1	1
Other	2	2	4
Total	6	14	20
Source of feed				0.61
Purchased	5	9	14
Mixed (purchased and scraps)	1	5	6
Total	6	14	20
Movement of poultry or
poultry product
Onto premises	2	6	8	1.00
Off premises	0	4	4	0.27
Onto or off premises	2	6	8	1.00
^a Significance of difference between areas
^b Median (minimum, maximum)

Figure 2. Frequency histogram for poultry-positive land parcels within specified distances of a commercial poultry enterprise within an urbanrural fringe area adjacent to the city of Palmerston North.