The effects of food-related environmental complexity on litter directed behaviour, fear and exploration of novel stimuli in young broiler chickens

Long-term access to live black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) stimulates activity and reduces fearfulness of broilers, without affecting health

“…In line with this, increasing the frequency to seven times a day or prolonging access to live BSFL by providing them in tubes not only caused a higher increase in foraging behaviour and activity, but also increased activity during more weeks. This is in accordance with previous studies that suggested 25 or showed 26 that prolonging access to insects would increase broiler activity even more. Prolonged access can increase activity in multiple ways.…”

“…Providing 5% of the diet as live BSFL given seven times a day or providing 10% of the diet as live BSFL in tubes both reduced the time broilers spent in tonic immobility compared to controls, which indicates reduced fearfulness 29 . While previously tested enrichment methods such as providing mealworms once a day or adding strings and perches did not affect fearfulness 25,43 , adding perches in combination with peat dust baths did reduce fearfulness in broilers compared to barren-housed controls 2 . Prolonged access to preferred enrichment such as peat dust baths or larvae could have extended the interaction with non-threatening stimuli and adapted the birds to potentially frightening situations 44 , reducing their tonic immobility response.…”

“…Previous studies in which maize roughage or sand and strings were provided to broilers also found an increase in foraging behaviour 36,37 , however this increase was numerically lower and occurred for a shorter time compared to the current study. The difference in foraging behaviour between studies could be attributed to the high motivation of broilers to gain access to high-value feed items such as insects 21,25 compared to items with a low nutritional value, making them relatively more willing to work for access to larvae. This is supported by the observation that overall locomotion was increased by live larvae provisioning but not by providing maize roughage or sand and strings 36,37 .…”

“…Insects are part of the natural diet of chickens, and several insect meals have been included in broiler feed without negatively affecting broiler health and/or performance 22 – 24 . Providing a small amount of mealworms increased broiler activity for several minutes 25 . In our previous study, replacing 5 or 10% of the dietary dry matter intake of broilers with live black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) and scattering them across the pen twice or four times a day promoted active behaviours.…”

The effect of supplementary ultraviolet wavelengths on broiler chicken welfare indicators

“…Other forms of EE that promote the expression of natural behaviours such as appropriate litter provision ( Brantsæter et al, 2017 ; Pichova et al, 2016 ; Shao et al, 2015 ), elevated platforms ( Norring et al, 2016 ) or providing straw bales ( Kells et al, 2001 ) have been shown to reduce fearfulness and improve welfare. UVA wavelengths may potentially enhance the appearance of, or increase engagement with, other forms of EE leading to other indirect effects of UVA on fear reduction.…”