Associations between behaviour and health outcomes in conventional and slow-growing breeds of broiler chicken

Abeyesinghe, Siobhan; Chancellor, Natalie; Moore, D.H.; Chang, Yu‐Mei; Pearce, Justine; Demmers, T. G. M.; Nicol, CJ

doi:10.1016/j.animal.2021.100261

Cited by 25 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Dustbathing is suggested to be stimulated by sunlight (Duncan et al., 1998 ). Other environmental factors such as inappropriate lighting management (Lucena et al., 2020 ), along with other factors leading to decreased health status (Abeyesinghe et al., 2021 ) of the individual will display the major hazards for this behavioural trait. Ongoing scientific work addresses the optimisation of the light intensity and light colour, or which combination supports the behaviour of the animals (Blatchford et al., 2012 ; Huth and Archer, 2015 ).…”

Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare of broilers on farm

Nielsen¹,

Álvarez²,

Bicout³

et al. 2023

EFS2

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This Scientific Opinion considers the welfare of domestic fowl (Gallus gallus) related to the production of meat (broilers) and includes the keeping of day-old chicks, broiler breeders, and broiler chickens. Currently used husbandry systems in the EU are described. Overall, 19 highly relevant welfare consequences (WCs) were identified based on severity, duration and frequency of occurrence: 'bone lesions', 'cold stress', 'gastro-enteric disorders', 'group stress', 'handling stress', 'heat stress', 'isolation stress', 'inability to perform comfort behaviour', 'inability to perform exploratory or foraging behaviour', 'inability to avoid unwanted sexual behaviour', 'locomotory disorders', 'prolonged hunger', 'prolonged thirst', 'predation stress', 'restriction of movement', 'resting problems', 'sensory under-and overstimulation', 'soft tissue and integument damage' and 'umbilical disorders'. These WCs and their animal-based measures (ABMs) that can identify them are described in detail. A variety of hazards related to the different husbandry systems were identified as well as ABMs for assessing the different WCs. Measures to prevent or correct the hazards and/or mitigate each of the WCs are listed. Recommendations are provided on quantitative or qualitative criteria to answer specific questions on the welfare of broilers and related to genetic selection, temperature, feed and water restriction, use of cages, light, air quality and mutilations in breeders such as beak trimming, de-toeing and comb dubbing. In addition, minimal requirements (e.g. stocking density, group size, nests, provision of litter, perches and platforms, drinkers and feeders, of covered veranda and outdoor range) for an enclosure for keeping broiler chickens (fast-growing, slower-growing and broiler breeders) are recommended. Finally, 'total mortality', 'wounds', 'carcass condemnation' and 'footpad dermatitis' are proposed as indicators for monitoring at slaughter the welfare of broilers on-farm.

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Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare of broilers on farm

Nielsen¹,

Álvarez²,

Bicout³

et al. 2023

EFS2

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“…Differences in the behavior of fast- and slow-growing broilers have been previously studied ( Almeida et al, 2012 ; Dixon, 2020 ; Torrey et al, 2020 ; Abeyesinghe et al, 2021 ). Generally, activity (locomoting and standing) decreases with age and conventional broilers are less active than slow-growing broilers ( Dixon, 2020 ; Torrey et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, conventional broilers tend to forage less than medium- ( Almeida et al, 2012 ) and slow-growing ( Yan et al, 2021 ). Exploratory behaviors (foraging), alongside comfort and social behaviors, such as stretching, preening and allopreening, can be studied to determine welfare status ( Prayitno et al, 1997 ; Costa et al, 2012 ) and changes in these behaviors may precede clinical signs of disease ( Abeyesinghe et al, 2021 ). This is particularly important because chickens (evolutionarily prey animals) rarely show sickness behavior when diseased.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavior and Immune Response of Conventional and Slow-Growing Broilers to Salmonella Typhimurium

et al. 2022

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Fast growth rate in broiler chickens comes with welfare concerns and the contribution of growth rate to pathogen resistance and sickness behavior is relatively unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate physiological and behavioral responses of conventional (CONV) and slow-growing (SG) male broilers challenged with Salmonella Typhimurium. CONV (n = 156) and SG (n = 156) chicks were raised in a pen with wood litter shavings until day 7 of age, when birds were transferred to 24 isolators (n = 11 chicks/isolator). On day 14 of age, half of the birds (n = 12 isolators) were challenged with S. Typhimurium (ST) and the other half (n = 12 isolators) received a control (C). On days 7, 13, 17, 21, and 24, body weight was recorded, and blood, jejunum and ileum sections were collected from 2 birds/isolator (n = 48 birds/sampling) to measure plasma IgA and IgG and intestinal histomorphology, respectively. On days 12, 16, 21, and 23, video was recorded to evaluate bird postures (sitting, standing, or locomoting) and behaviors (eating, drinking, preening, stretching, sham foraging, allopreening, and aggression). CONV birds were 70 g heavier (p = 0.03) on day 21 and 140 g heavier (p = 0.007) on day 24 than SG. On day 7, CONV jejunum villus height and crypt depth were 22 and 7 μm greater (p ≤ 0.001), respectively, than SG. On day 24, ST ileum villus height was 95 μm shorter (p = 0.009) than C. IgA increased after day 17 for all birds and at day 21, CONV IgA was greater (p = 0.01) than SG. Although SG IgG was 344 μg/ml greater (p = 0.05) than CONV on day 7, CONV IgG increased with age (p < 0.0001) to greater (p ≤ 0.03) concentrations than SG on day 21 and day 24 by 689 μg/ml and 1,474 μg/ml, respectively, while SG IgG remained at similar concentrations after day 13. Generally, a greater proportion of birds sham foraged as they aged (p < 0.0001). A greater proportion of CONV tended to sit (p = 0.09) and fewer locomoted (p < 0.0001) than SG as they aged. The results illustrate conventional and slow-growing broilers differ in their behavior, immunity, and response to Salmonella.

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“…Welfare criteria that can be assessed through resource use are the absence of prolonged hunger or thirst (i.e., feeding and drinking), and the expression of appropriate behaviour (i.e., species-specific natural behaviours, such as perching or making use of bale) (Welfare Quality ® , 2009). These behaviours are an essential part of welfare and have been previously related to broiler health (Weeks et al, 2000;Abeyesinghe et al, 2021), making them relevant for broiler welfare assessment. Monitoring resource use of broilers can further be used to improve housing design, allocate resources more optimally and provide warnings of equipment malfunctioning (Kashiha et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing is caring – automated assessment of resource use of broilers with computer vision techniques

Eijk

Guzhva

Voß³

et al. 2022

Front. Anim. Sci.

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Routine monitoring of broiler chickens provides insights in the welfare status of a flock, helps to guarantee minimum defined levels of animal welfare and assists farmers in taking remedial measures at an early stage. Computer vision techniques offer exciting potential for routine and automated assessment of broiler welfare, providing an objective and biosecure alternative to the current more subjective and time-consuming methods. However, the current state-of-the-art computer vision solutions for assessing broiler welfare are not sufficient to allow the transition to fully automated monitoring in a commercial environment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the potential of computer vision algorithms for detection and resource use monitoring of broilers housed in both experimental and commercial settings, while also assessing the potential for scalability and resource-efficient implementation of such solutions. This study used a combination of detection and resource use monitoring methods, where broilers were first detected using Mask R-CNN and were then assigned to a specific resource zone using zone-based classifiers. Three detection models were proposed using different annotation datasets: model A with annotated broilers from a research facility, model B with annotated broilers from a commercial farm, and model A+B where annotations from both environments were combined. The algorithms developed for individual broiler detection performed well for both the research facility (model A, F1 score > 0.99) and commercial farm (model A+B, F1 score > 0.83) test data with an intersection over union of 0.75. The subsequent monitoring of resource use at the commercial farm using model A+B for broiler detection, also performed very well for the feeders, bale and perch (F1 score > 0.93), but not for the drinkers (F1 score = 0.28), which was likely caused by our evaluation method. Thus, the algorithms used in this study are a first step to measure resource use automatically in commercial application and allow detection of a large number of individual animals in a non-invasive manner. From location data of every frame, resource use can be calculated. Ultimately, the broiler detection and resource use monitoring might further be used to assess broiler welfare.

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Associations between behaviour and health outcomes in conventional and slow-growing breeds of broiler chicken

Cited by 25 publications

References 34 publications

Welfare of broilers on farm

Welfare of broilers on farm

Behavior and Immune Response of Conventional and Slow-Growing Broilers to Salmonella Typhimurium

Seeing is caring – automated assessment of resource use of broilers with computer vision techniques

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