Effect of including whole oats into pellets on performance and plumage condition in laying hens housed in conventional and furnished cages

Hetland, H.; Moe, Randi Oppermann; Tauson, R.; Lervik, S.; Svihus, Birger

doi:10.1080/09064700410010026

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This experimental design allowed for four rearing and housing combinations: CR/CC; CR/FC; FR/CC; and FR/FC. This study was part of another largescale study (Hetland et al, 2004), and the results reported here are from a total of 160 individuals randomly selected from these rearing and housing alternatives, that is, 80 birds (20 per rearing and housing alternative) for the ACTH and immunization challenge, and a further 80 birds (20 per rearing and housing alternative) for the H/L trial. Individual hens were not marked according to rearing pen or cage number when they were transferred to layers cage systems, and it was therefore not possible to include pen or rearing cage number as a factor.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been shown that rearing pullets with intact beaks on deep litter floor resulted in a positive long-term impact on plumage conditions regardless of housing conditions (i.e. FC or CC) during the laying period (Hetland et al, 2004). Hens for this study had been recruited from that large-scale experiment in order to explore measures relevant to stress and adaptation that have been presented as an important approach for addressing hen welfare (Blokhuis et al, 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Effects of housing conditions during the rearing and laying period on adrenal reactivity, immune response and heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratios in laying hens

Moe

Guemene

Bakken

et al. 2010

Animal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of early rearing conditions on physiological, haematological and immunological responses relevant to adaptation and long-term stress in white Leghorn hens with intact beaks housed in furnished cages (FC) or conventional cages (CC) during the laying period. Pullets were cage reared (CR) or litter floor reared (FR). From 16 to 76 weeks of age, hens were housed in FC (eight hens per cage) or in CC (three hens per cage). As measures of long-term stress at the end of the laying period, adrenal reactivity was quantified by assessing corticosterone responses to adrenocorticotropin challenge, and immune response was assessed by measuring antibody responses after immunization with sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH). Heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratio was employed as an indicator of stress. Rearing conditions significantly affected anti-SRBC titres ( P , 0.0001) and tended to affect H/L ratios ( P 5 0.07), with the highest values found in FR hens. Layer housing affected H/L ratio ( P , 0.01); the highest ratio was found in FR birds housed in FC during the laying period. This study shows that early rearing environment affects immunological indicators that are widely used to assess stress in laying hens. However, while results on H/L ratio indicated that FR birds experienced more stress particularly when they were housed in FC during the laying period, the immune responses to SRBC in FR hens was improved, indicating the opposite. This contradiction suggests that the effects on immune response may have been associated with pathogenic load due to environmental complexity in FR and FC hens rather than stress due to rearing system or housing system per se.Keywords: welfare, housing, rearing, laying hens, adaptation ImplicationsThis study was conducted to explore effects of early pullet rearing conditions on adaptation to furnished cages (FC) during the laying period, which may be a key issue for hen welfare. Physiological, haematological and immunological variables relevant to stress and welfare were measured in birds with intact beaks housed in cages or on the litter floor during rearing, and subsequently in conventional cages or FC during the laying period. Rearing conditions affected variables relevant for hen adaptation. However, it was not evident if the effects were associated with pathogenic load or stress and environmental conditions. IntroductionCurrently, the improvement of laying hen welfare is of great concern to the European Commission and EU egg industry (Council Directive, 1999; EFSA, 2005;Blokhuis et al., 2007). In recent times, there have been concerted research efforts focusing on modifying cage designs and improving hen welfare (Appleby et al., 2002;Blokhuis et al., 2007). A furnished cage system (FC) attempts to provide an enriched environment to meet the behavioural needs of hens while maintaining a small group size to minimize stress (Tauson, 1998). In contrast to the conventional cages (CC), FC are equipped with nesting ar...

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of housing conditions during the rearing and laying period on adrenal reactivity, immune response and heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratios in laying hens

Moe

Guemene

Bakken

et al. 2010

Animal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A full crop and gizzard is likely to make the birds feel more satiated, resulting in birds appearing more calm. This may contribute to a lower feather pecking pressure (Hartini et al, 2003;Hetland et al, 2004b). The effects of insoluble NSP intake on MRT in the foregut were more pronounced with coarse vs fine ground NSP.…”

Section: Effect Of Particle Sizes Of Nspmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of dietary energy concentration, nonstarch polysaccharide concentration, and particle sizes of nonstarch polysaccharides on digesta mean retention time and gut development in laying hens

Krimpen

Kwakkel²,

Peet–Schwering

et al. 2011

British Poultry Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. From an experiment with 504 laying hens (ISA Brown strain, 18-40 weeks of age), 90 40-week old hens were used for determining digesta mean retention time (MRT) and gut weight development. This experiment comprised 6 dietary treatments according to a 2 × 3 factorial design. Factors were dietary apparent metabolisable energy (AME) concentration (11·8 vs 10·6 MJ/kg), insoluble nonstarch polysaccharides (NSP) concentration (65 vs 134 g/kg), and fine vs coarse particle sizes of added NSP. Titanium recovery in different gut segments was used as an indicator of MRT. 2. Increasing NSP concentration prolonged MRT in the crop (68 vs 34 min) and total foregut (91 vs 57 min) compared with control NSP. Reducing energy concentration prolonged MRT in the colon (26 vs 7 min), and total hind gut (30 vs 9 min), compared with control energy. Overall MRT was not affected by dietary treatments. 3. Increasing NSP concentration increased relative weights of the empty proventriculus-gizzard and its contents by 30% (25·2 vs 19·4 g/kg) and 18% (15·4 vs 13·0 g/kg), respectively, compared with control NSP diets. 4. MRT in the foregut was prolonged as daily insoluble NSP intake increased, and this was more pronounced in hens given coarsely ground NSP, compared with finely ground. A prolonged MRT in the foregut seemed to indicate a higher level of satiety, which may contribute to a lower feather pecking pressure in laying hens.

show abstract

“…Appleby and Hughess (1991) stated that no system was ideal from the aspect of production, welfare, layers' health, and mortality. Hetland et al (2004) compared 2 400 layers in conventional 3-hen cages and two furnished cage systems with 8 or 16 birds. Egg production was lower in furnished cages than in conventional cages.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The quality comparison of eggs laid by laying hens kept in battery cages and in a deep litter system

Pištěková¹,

Hovorka²,

Večerek³

et al. 2006

Czech J. Anim. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At present there are important changes in housing systems in laying hen husbandry. Henceforward, only alternative husbandry systems shall be allowed, among which deep litter systems can be included. Therefore, many authors are engaged in the investigation of alternative systems, their advantages and disadvantages.Savory (2004) stated that from the welfare viewpoint cage systems were burdened with a lack of space for laying hens, however, conversely they ensured the better health status of laying hens. Petermann (2003) concluded that alternative aviary systems with deep litter were burdened with higher mortality of laying hens. De Boer and Cornelissen (2002) considered battery cages to be more favourable than aviary systems, in particular from the viewpoint of stock economics, ammonia emission, egg quality and farmer welfare. Duncan (2001) analysed advantages and disadvantages of battery cage systems. He considered the low incidence of diseases, low incidence of social frictions, and the absence of problems resulting from litter as the main advantages. The disadvantages were found to be a lack of both physical and psychological space for laying hens, lack of space for daily activities and nesting and dust bathing opportunities, and a higher incidence of foot lesions. Cooper and Albentosa (2003) ABSTRACT: At present the laying hen rearing is transformed into alternative housing systems which include a deep litter system. As for the poultry nutrition, the replacement of animal protein with vegetable protein in poultry feed is applied. Therefore, in an experiment we evaluated the quality of eggs from laying hens in the cage system as compared to the deep litter system with vegetable protein substituted for animal protein in their feed. 72 ISA Brown laying hens were placed into the experiment. 36 laying hens were kept in the deep litter system and 36 laying hens were kept in conventional cages for laying hens. For the period of 9 months, 36 eggs from the group in the deep litter system were examined, always at intervals of five weeks (i.e. 8 × 36 eggs) and so were 36 eggs from the group in the cage system (i.e. 8 × 36 eggs). We found out that in the deep litter system the mean egg weight was higher (P < 0.01), shell weight was lower (P < 0.01), egg albumen was higher (P < 0.01), yolk weight did not differ (P > 0.05), yolk cholesterol was higher (P < 0.01), yolk colour was darker (P < 0.05), shell strength did not differ (P > 0.05), all in comparison with the cage system of laying hen keeping. The results of the experiment show that where vegetable protein was substituted for animal protein in the nutrition of laying hens, there were differences in the quality of eggs from laying hens kept in the deep litter system and eggs from laying hens kept in the cage system.

show abstract

Effect of including whole oats into pellets on performance and plumage condition in laying hens housed in conventional and furnished cages

Cited by 19 publications

References 18 publications

Effects of housing conditions during the rearing and laying period on adrenal reactivity, immune response and heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratios in laying hens

Effects of housing conditions during the rearing and laying period on adrenal reactivity, immune response and heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratios in laying hens

Effects of dietary energy concentration, nonstarch polysaccharide concentration, and particle sizes of nonstarch polysaccharides on digesta mean retention time and gut development in laying hens

The quality comparison of eggs laid by laying hens kept in battery cages and in a deep litter system

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About