The aim of this study was to assess the effect of natural light and straw bales on activity levels and leg health in commercial broiler chickens. Houses containing ,23 000 broiler chickens were assigned to one of four treatments in a 2 3 2 factorial design. Treatments involved two levels of access to natural light (NL) (present '1NL', or absent '2NL') and two levels of access to straw bales (SB) (present (30/house) '1SB', or absent '2SB'). All houses were windowed and artificially lit, and windows were shuttered where appropriate. Treatments were applied in one of the two houses on each of the two farms, and were replicated over four production cycles. Behaviour was observed in 2 to 6 weeks of the cycle. This involved observations of general behaviour and activity, gait scores (0 (perfect) to 5 (unable to walk)) and latency to lie (measured in seconds from encouraging a bird to stand). Production performance and environmental parameters were also measured. Average daytime light intensity and UV levels in the 1NL treatment were 85.2 lx and 3.37 mW/cm 2 , respectively, and in the 2NL treatment were 11.4 lx and 0 mW/cm 2 , respectively. Litter moisture levels were lower with NL treatment (P , 0.05), but were not affected by SB (P . 0.05). The percentage of time spent lying was significantly reduced by the provision of NL (P , 0.01), but not by SB (P . 0.05). There were three-way interactions between NL, SB and bird age on the percentage of time spent in locomotion (P , 0.05) and idling (P , 0.05). Both treatment factors had inconsistent effects on these parameters across different weeks. Levels of preening, resting and aggressive behaviour were not affected by treatment (P . 0.05). There was an interaction between treatments in average gait scores, with higher scores in the 2NL2SB treatment than in all other treatments, and higher in the 2NL1SB treatment than in the 1NL treatments (P , 0.001). Average latency to lie was significantly higher with NL (P , 0.001) and SB (P , 0.05). We conclude that environmental modifications have the potential to increase activity levels and improve the leg health of commercial broilers. The light environment appears to be particularly important in this respect.
There is currently a lack of research investigating the effectiveness of commercial broiler enrichments, and in particular the ability of these additions to create opportunities for positive welfare. One aim of this study was to investigate whether offering broiler chickens enrichments that have recently been found to be preferred leads to increased levels of activity. A second aim was to investigate the emotional effects of provision of these enrichments by assessing levels of fearfulness and play-like activity. Commercially housed broilers were assigned to treatment houses containing either: (1) platform perches, (2) platform perches+peat dust baths, (3) no enrichment (control). Activity levels and play behaviours in unenriched areas of the house were measured in weeks 3, 4 and 5. Levels of active behaviours, such as foraging and locomotion, were determined from video recordings of undisturbed birds in unenriched areas of the house. To stimulate play-like behaviours an observer walked through the birds, displacing them and creating a space. The broilers using the space were then filmed for 5 min and the occurrences of frolicking, sparring and food-running were recorded. Fearfulness of broilers in unenriched areas of the house, and also when using enrichments, was measured using observer avoidance tests in week 5. We found that creating space among the broilers was a successful method of stimulating play (largely sparring and frolicking), with play being observed in 93% of videos, however the presence of enrichments did not have an effect on the level of play recorded (P>0.05). There was also no treatment effect on activity levels of broilers in unenriched areas (P>0.05), however levels of overall activity decreased as broilers aged. Compared with the control, flight distances in unenriched areas were significantly lower in the perches+dust bath treatment (P=0.026), and were numerically lower in the perches treatment. This suggests a reduction in fearfulness with increased environmental complexity, and thus possible welfare benefits. It is suggested that further research should investigate whether increasing the level of provision of these enrichments leads to more marked improvements in welfare.
The use of straw bales as an environmental enrichment is common for broiler chickens in enriched housing systems, however relatively little information exists about their effectiveness in improving welfare. There has also been no widespread introduction of a dustbathing material for broilers. The main aim of this trial was to evaluate the use of a dustbathing substrate (in the form of oat hulls), both as an alternative to straw bales and as a supplementary enrichment. Over four replicates, four commercial houses, each containing approximately 22,000 broilers, were assigned to one of four treatments over the 6-week production cycle: (1) straw bales (B; one per 155 m 2 ), (2) oat hulls as a dustbathing substrate (OH; provided in 1 m diameter steel rings, one per 155 m 2 ), (3) both oat hulls and straw bales (OH+B), and (4) a control treatment with no environmental enrichment (C).Observations of broiler behaviour and leg health were taken weekly, and performance data was collected for each cycle. Broilers housed in the OH and OH+B treatments had better gait scores in week 6 than those housed in the C treatment (P < 0.05), which suggests that the provision of oat hulls improved bird leg health. However, there was no associated increase in activity levels in unenriched areas of the houses. Conversely, more locomotion (P < 0.001), less sitting inactive (P < 0.001) and less sitting pecking (P < 0.001) were observed in the C treatment than in unenriched areas of B, OH and OH+B treatments. More birds were recorded around the bales compared to the oat hulls (P < 0.001), however birds performed significantly more foraging (P = 0.019) and dustbathing (P = 0.045) in oat hulls than around straw bales. Although oat hulls appear to be more suitable for stimulating active behaviours than straw bales, the high level of resting recorded around the bales suggests they may have a positive function as protective cover. The presence of an additional type of enrichment in the house did not affect the number of birds, or the type of behaviours performed in close proximity to either straw bales or oat hulls (P > 0.05). Treatment did not have a significant effect on pododermatitis levels or slaughter weight, on mortality rates, or on litter quality or atmospheric ammonia levels (P > 0.05). Overall, our results suggest that the oat hulls substrate was a successful enrichment in terms of promoting dustbathing and foraging, and improving bird leg health. The straw bales also appeared attractive to the birds, however, which suggests that a dustbathing substrate should be a supplementary enrichment.
Two related experiments involving broiler chickens are presented. Experiment 1 evaluated the use of six perch types: (1) an A-frame design (incorporating a platform and ramps), (2) a 'flat top' ramp, (3) a curved ramp, (4) a suspended bar, (5) a fixed bar and (6) a suspended platform. Two of each perch type was provided in one commercial house on each of two farms over two 6-week production cycles. Each perch was videoed for a 24 hour period in weeks 1-6 of cycle 1, and weeks 1-5 of cycle 2. Scan sampling was used to assign an occupancy score to different perch components (platform, bar and ramp, where appropriate), and an overall weighted occupancy score also calculated. Counts were made of perching and failed perching attempts following selected scans in cycle 1. There were significantly higher occupancy scores for platform than for bar or ramp components, and this was apparent across the production cycle. This resulted in a higher overall weighted occupancy score for suspended platforms. The percentage of failed perching attempts was significantly greater with fixed and suspended bar perches than with the curved ramp. Three treatments were assessed in Experiment 2: (1) provision of six suspended platform perches (P), (2) provision of six suspended platform perches and four peat-filled dust baths (PD), and (3) control treatment with no platform perches or dust baths. Treatments were applied in one of three houses on each of two farms, and replicated over three cycles. Two perches in each of the P and PD treatments were videoed for a 25 min period in weeks 3, 4 and 5, and number of birds using the perches recorded. The severity of angular leg deformities, hock burn and pododermatitis lesions, and walking ability were scored in weeks 3, 4 and 5, and prevalence of pododermatitis and hock burn recorded at slaughter. Litter moisture and production-related measures were also taken. On average, 26 birds (12.6 birds/m 2) occupied the perches, and this was not affected by provision of dust baths or age. Treatment did not significantly affect any of the measures taken. It is concluded that broilers prefer to perch on platforms rather than bars or ramps, and thus that platforms better cater for an important behavioural need. However, provision of platform perches, even in combination with dust baths, did not improve leg health, and future research should investigate greater levels of provision of these enrichments.
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of providing environmental enrichment in the form of perches and string on the behaviour and welfare of commercial broiler chickens. Houses containing~23 000 broiler chickens were assigned to one of four treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Treatments involved two levels of access to perches (P) (present (24/house) ' +P' or absent ' −P') and two levels of access to string (S) (present (24/house) ' +S' or absent ' −S'). All houses contained windows, and 30 straw bales were provided from day 10 of the rearing cycle. Treatments were applied in one of four houses on a single farm, and were replicated over four production cycles. Behaviour and leg health were observed in weeks 3 to 5 of the rearing cycle. Production performance and environmental parameters were also measured. There was an interaction between perches and age in the percentage of birds observed lying, with higher percentages of birds observed lying in the +P treatment than in the −P treatment during weeks 4 and 5. There was also a significant interaction between string and age in the percentage of birds observed in locomotion, with higher percentages observed in locomotion in the −S treatment than in the +S treatment during weeks 4 and 5. There was also an interaction between string and age in average gait scores, with lower gait scores in the +S treatment than in the −S treatment during weeks 3 and 5 but not within week 4. Daytime observations showed that perches and strings were used frequently, with one bout of perching occurring approximately every 80 s/perch, and one bout of pecking at string occurring every 78 s/string on average. There was a significant effect of age on use of perches (P < 0.001) and string (P < 0.001), with perching peaking during week 5 and string pecking peaking during week 3. We conclude that commercial broilers in windowed houses with access to straw bales display an interest in additional enrichment stimuli in the form of perches and string, and therefore that these stimuli have the potential to improve welfare. In addition, provision of string as a pecking device appeared to positively influence walking ability. However, this effect was numerically small, was only shown in certain weeks and was not reflected in the other leg health measure (latency to lie). The results also showed an apparent negative effect of string and perches on the activity levels of birds (recorded away from the immediate vicinity of these enrichments) towards the end of the production cycle. These results emphasise the need for further research into optimum design and layout of enrichment stimuli for modern broilers in windowed houses to ensure that their provision leads to clear welfare benefits.
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