OIE ad hoc Group Animal Welfare and Laying Hen Production Systems – Chapter 7.Z – November 2017
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Within the European Union, the provision of dustbathing material in layer housing systems will be compulsory beginning in 2012. In cage systems, food particles are mainly used as litter material and are provided on scratching mats by an automatic transporting system. However, because dustbathing is a means for hens to remove stale lipids from their …
The provision for dustbathing material will be a legal requirement in cage-housing systems for laying hens within the European Union beginning in 2012. At present, food particles are widely used and typically offered in small amounts on Astroturf mats one or more times per day to facilitate dustbathing, pecking, and scratching. In the present study, …
The main advantages of battery cages for laying hens over alternative husbandry systems are (1) increased hygiene resulting in a much lower incidence of diseases in which the infectious agent is spread through the droppings, (2) small group size resulting in a low incidence of social friction, (3) ease of management, (4) absence of litter …
1. The objective was to determine the relation between social rank and use of resources in a small furnished cage …
This experiment examined the welfare related effects of individual furniture items alone or in combination in a factorial experiment using Hy-Line Brown hens housed in 8-bird furnished cages. Welfare was assessed during two 8-wk sampling periods commencing at 29 and 59 wk of age. Measurement of stress, immunology, feather, foot and claw condition, and behavior …
Birds usually dustbathe in litter, but in the absence of this they sham dustbathe. The question addressed in this study was whether laying hens, Gallus gallus domesticus reared without litter and used to performing sham dustbathing consider this to be ‘real’ dustbathing and are satisfied with this or, if given the opportunity, would choose to …
Effects of sand versus sawdust as a litter bath substrate in furnished cages for laying hens were studied. The study used 112 Hy-Line White (HYW) and 140 Hy-Line Brown (HYB) layers housed in 18 furnished cages with 14 hens in each cage, generating 4 or 5 replicates per combination of genotype and litter substrate. Traits …