Welfare of broiler chickens reared in two different industrial house types during the winter season in Southern Brazil

From the Point of View of the Chickens: What Difference Does a Window Make?

“…Adding further evidence to this discussion, our results indicate that providing windows increases the behaviour repertoire, a fact observed in previous studies. Sans et al [ 13 , 14 ] observed that broiler chickens reared in open-sided houses, with natural light provided by no-glass windows, but with curtains during summer/autumn, showed higher relative frequencies for exploration behaviour when compared with birds in closed-sided houses; during the winter, there was a higher frequency for drinking and a lower inactivity. Thus, our results suggest that, even with eventual changes in natural daylight characteristics due presence of glass in the windows, it remains possible to observe a potential improve in bird welfare as the increase of activities considered important for the birds, i.e., social activities in the NAL barn side.…”

“…The birds do express more natural behaviour and are more active compared to birds not exposed to natural light [ 11 ]. Although there are types of lamps that can offer the same characteristics as natural illuminance, such as bulbs supplemented with ultraviolet (UV) light fixtures [ 12 ], these technologies are not widely used in Brazilian chicken barns, for which a variety of lamp types is observed, such as incandescent and fluorescent lamps [ 13 , 14 ]. In this case, according to the light source type, artificial illuminance may differ from natural light in terms of light colour, intensity, photoperiod, and flicker [ 9 ], and these characteristics may influence bird preferences [ 15 ].…”

“…Although there are no public data regarding the proportion of each type of poultry house type in Brazil, broiler chickens in intensive systems are mostly raised in two main barn types [ 13 , 14 ]. The conventional system employs open-sided poultry houses, where the natural daylight may enter without passing through glass when their movable curtains are open; they are called conventional because they used to predominate in the Brazilian poultry meat industry.…”

“…Lately, the closed-poultry house type is rapidly becoming more popular in Brazil, and it uses only artificial light. Open- and closed-sided poultry houses have positive and negative welfare aspects, which may also vary according to season [ 13 , 14 ]. However, the quantity and quality of the light available to the birds may be considered a major factor that differentiates these two barn types in terms of their animal welfare potential.…”

Avaliação de variáveis comportamentais, fisiológicas e ambientais de frangos de corte criados em três tipos de aviários comerciais.

“…Ademais, é um comportamento natural das aves, no entanto, este comportamento foi menor no galpão DH e isso pode ter ocorrido devido a influência da luminosidade do galpão. O menor consumo de água e de alimento pode estar relacionado com um ambiente estático e com baixa iluminação, o que levar as aves apresentarem uma maior frequência do comportamento inativo(Sans et al, 2021). Além disso, pode estar relacionado também com um aumento na densidade de aves alojadas(Bailie et al 2018).…”