Smothering has been an issue for chicken producers for a long-time. It causes suffocation and death and is very difficult to predict and therefore manage. Studies that looked at several different barns found that there were three types of smothering occurring, panic smothering, nest box smothering, and creeping or recurring smothering. The researchers were able to find trends in when certain smothering types would occur. More research is being done that looks into behavior leading up to smothering and environmental and managerial conditions that cause it.