Bird-e – The Poultry E-Feeding System: Basis and Applications
Published:April 25, 2022
Summary
Introduction Controlling production costs and animal welfare are important factors for breeders. Feed accounts for 50 to 70% of the production cost in poultry production (van Horne, 2018). The feed conversion ratio (FCR), which is the ratio of feed consumption to meat or egg production, is an important criterion for the profitability of these farms. It is also an indicator of the environmental...
Extremely interesting article, thank you. I have some questions about the RFID chip. How time consuming was it to attach the chip? How secure is the chip? Is it lost easily, did you experience such losses in your evaluation? Would the chips - after removal and disinfection - by re-usable? Thanks in anticipation, Martin
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
23 de mayo de 2022
Attaching the RFID chip takes only a few seconds per animal.
We do not observe chip loss, even during 5-7 weeks production cycles (not more in any case than with traditional wingbands).
We reuse the chips several times after removal and disinfection, but we test the chips before reusing them in case some are worn out.
Very interesting technology to conduct complicated research with effect energy content of feed, physical form and pellet size and so on. Individual birds could be experimental unit and because of high number of sample, power of test is improved accordingly. Even several treatments can be evaluated in a single facility then the variation that comes from ambient environment is negligible. If I am right, the chip implantation does not need special skill and is simply done by a machine?
The speed of development of individual feed intake in chickens is extremely important for poultry breeding. one of the main drawbacks of feed intake recorded in individual cages was the lack of social stimulation. This was the main reason why we developed a similar feedin station (without body weight recording) some years ago (see Bley T.A.G., 2003; Bley and Bessei, 2008). https://opus.uni-hohenheim.de/volltexte/2003/29/pdf/Dissertation_Bley.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5640098_Recording_of_Individual_Feed_Intake_and_Feeding_Behavior_of_Pekin_Ducks_Kept_in_Groups
In contrast to the present feeder station our feeders are aligned on raws where the birds can see each other while feeding and are stimulated by social facilitation. This has been suggested important in ducks but also in chickens. We also used a bird to feeder place ratio of 10 : 1. I wonder whether the special placement of the individual feeders influence feeding behaviour.