Play has long been identified as a potential welfare indicator because it often disappears when animals are under fitness challenge and because it is thought to be accompanied by a pleasurable emotional experience. But animal play is a vexing behavioural phenomenon, characteristically flexible and variable within and between species, with its proximate mechanisms and ultimate …
Under current practices, broiler parent stock (broiler breeders) encounter several welfare problems, such as feed restriction and injury during mating. Intensive selection for production traits, especially growth rate, is associated with increased nutritious requirement and thus feed consumption, but also reproductive dysfunctions and decreased sexual activity in broiler breeders. A resulting serious welfare problem is …
The main objective of this work was to describe the characteristics of and major constraints to village chicken production in …
After more than ten years of circulation of the H5N1 HPAI virus, the number of endemically infected countries is increasing …
Village poultry make a significant contribution to poverty alleviation and household food security in many developing countries. This contribution by …
This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of force molting programs on egg production and quality oflaying hens. Total of 165 white Bovines laying hens at 72 weeks of age were divided into four groups. Birds in-group 1 (control), birds in group 2, 3 and 4 were fasted for 10, 12 and 15 days, …
1. The objectives of the present study were to validate a reduced, non-intrusive version (RLS) of the LayWel plumage scoring system in domestic laying hens with reference to complete, intrusive scoring (CLS) and to investigate the effect of these two scoring methods on corticosterone metabolite concentrations. 2. A total of 312 medium-heavy laying hens from …
Feather pecking and cannibalism in chickens can lead to injury or to death of the victims, and is thus a serious welfare and economic issue in modern poultry farming. A sib selection scheme has been initiated to genetically select a low mortality line (LML), which shows decreased mortality due to cannibalism compared to a control …
Egg production systems have become subject to heightened levels of scrutiny. Multiple factors such as disease, skeletal and foot health, pest and parasite load, behavior, stress, affective states, nutrition, and genetics influence the level of welfare hens experience. Although the need to evaluate the influence of these factors on welfare is recognized, research is still …
In spite of the large amounts of money invested in research, breeding, and the improvement of commercial egg-type strains, high …
Layer breeding companies apply selection criteria to improve over 30 traits important for commercial egg production. Intensive selection for egg …
An experiment was conducted with 672 Hy-Line W-36 Single Comb White Leghorn hens (69 wk of age) to evaluate the …
The objectives of this study were to compare the behaviors, postures, and heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (H:L) of laying hens housed in a cage system when offered a Ca premolt treatment and low-energy molt diets vs. a traditional feed withdrawal (FW) treatment during and after molt. A total of 144 Hy-Line W-36 hens (85 wk of age), …
Resting on perches is an important behaviour for laying hens. However, perches in laying hen husbandry systems are associated with health problems which may result from inadequate perch designs. The aim of this study was to focus on particular behavioural patterns shown by laying hens on different perches during night-time in order to test whether …
By investigating the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance characteristics of Gram-positive bacteria from organic and conventional keeping systems of laying hens, …