In this article, the welfare of the laying hen is used to illustrate a proposed approach to regulation of the welfare of animals. The probable replacement of the present cage systems to a range of management systems in the future needs to be guided by regulations that act as a reference point and are not …
Animal welfare is usually assessed by measuring animals’ responses to different environments or procedures. The alternative approach examines animal decision making, assuming that even domestic animals in artificial environments are able to integrate all relevant inputs and select in their own best interests. These two approaches to animal welfare assessment have been pursued largely in …
With the General Food Law, the European Union has finalized a process of modification and restructuring of existing directives for all commodities, resulting in 1 General Food Law. This paper describes the background to European legislation in general and the specific objectives of the present General Food Law. Important sections in this law are the …
Methods available to assess animal welfare at farm level are based on a range of welfare parameters, which can be divided into two categories, environment-based and animal-based parameters. The first category describes features of the environment and management, which can be considered prerequisites for welfare. The second category records animals’ responses to that particular environment …
Nonhuman animal welfare is of significant public interest, globally and within the United States. Value-based judgments are intrinsic to animal welfare assessment, according to the relative weighting of factors associated with animal performance, health, affective states, and natural living. The concept of animal welfare is consistent with the scientific method because questions are open to …
Farm assurance schemes are an inevitable and essential part of the UK livestock industries as they provide valuable assurances to the market over food safety, nonhuman animal welfare, and environmental concerns.However, there is potential for welfare assessment within such schemes to extend beyond existing resourcebased parameters to include outcome-based observations of the behavior and physical …
The field of applied animal behaviour science has seen significant changes since David Wood-Gush and others began to study the behaviour of domesticated animals in the 1950s. This paper looks at these changes in order to provide a perspective on where the science has come from and where it might be going. Applied behaviour science …
The expansion in supplies of spent heavy fowl and the increasing use of broiler meat in further processed food products have reduced the market for spent laying hens to the point that these birds frequently have no value. If spent hens cannot be sold through traditional channels, egg producers must seek alternative ways t odispose …
Humane care is best defined as maintaining husbandry procedures in keeping with the traits which are species-specific to the animal farmed. It must be evaluated in relation to the ethogram of the species, and not to anthropomorphic human feelings about animal care. If humane care is pursued, some compatability may be found between what the …
Newly hatched chicks are routinely subjected to varying durations of transport shortly after hatching. Because little is known about the effects of this putative stressor on behavioural development, the present experiment tested for the effects of a simulated long transport-like treatment during the first day of life in two strains of laying hen chicks on …
1. Contaminated chicken meat remains an internationally important vehicle for human infection with Salmonella and Campylobacter spp. In addition, the last 20 years has seen an international pandemic of human salmonellosis caused by the contamination of eggs with Salmonella Enteritidis. 2. It has been a long held scientific view that Campylobacter spp. and most, if …
Reports and guidelines produced by international institutions such as the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE, 2005) describe various methods of killing nonhuman animals. Selection and implementation of a killing method may involve several factors. Preventing or minimizing risk to human health and safety may override animal welfare concerns if the disease has the potential …
Discoveries in behavior and welfare science have improved the health and well-being of egg laying flocks of chickens. The objectives of this review are to highlight research findings in genetics, health, environment, molting, morphological alterations, euthanasia, handling during depopulation, transportation, and harvesting to improve poultry welfare and to provide examples of additional opportunities to continue …
When hens kept for commercial egg production reach the end of their economically viable life span, they are usually transported to a processing plant for conversion into meat products. In this article, we review methods used in Canada and the United States for the catching and removing of these “spent” hens from the layer house …
There have been two excellent reviews recently on concussion stunning and electrical stunning (Schutt-Abraham, 1999; Shaw, 2002). The focus in this paper is on recent information not covered in those reviews, and on aspects of stunning and slaughter that are likely to become more important in the next five to ten years. The topics that …
This review starts with a brief outline of poultry behaviour and biology and a description of the present laying hen farming situation in Italy. Moreover, it points out the situation of EU legislation currently in effect for laying hen welfare. It then reviews the main welfare issues of layer farming. The following aspects are considered: …
FAWC updates the five freedoms