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Poultry welfare
Proper animal welfare involves providing the proper housing, management, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, responsible care, humane handling and, when necessary, humane euthanasia. These factors allow for the most optimal and humane growing environment. The concept of animal welfare includes three elements: the bird’s normal biological functioning, its emotional state and its ability to express its natural behaviors. Improving animal welfare can be accomplished through offerings like poultry feed enrichment, which can reduce stress, thereby increasing performance, productivity and profitability. Animal welfare is currently a major requirement for intensive poultry production. Beak trimming, stocking density, free access to feed, heat stress, and air pollutants became important issues, which are regulated in several countries. Animal welfare is observed by watching how birds naturally behave and even by looking at mortality stemming from aggressive behaviors.
I. INTRODUCTION Poultry house moisture contributes to many of the issues that poultry farms experience. As moisture builds in the litter/bedding, microbial populations thrive, more ammonia is generated, and the incidence and severity of footpad dermatitis increases. Much of the moisture in the house comes from the birds themselves, so in order to control moisture, one must understand the current moisture loads in the house. For example, broilers grow faster and convert feed more...
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1. Introduction The anti-predator behavior of roosting on the elevated structure shown by the ancestor of the domestic fowl (jungle fowl) has been seen in domesticated avian species even after they were reared in the indoor housing system [1,2]. The avian species, including the domestic fowl, exhibit the tendon-locking phenomenon, which allows them to express behaviors such as perching with minimal muscular effort [3,4]. Using aerial (raised) perches is considered a priority for...
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January 25, 2027
United States - Georgia - Atlanta
In poultry production, the avian respiratory system is both a biological advantage and a management challenge. Birds breathe through a highly efficient system built on unidirectional airflow and multiple air sacs, allowing rapid oxygen exchange to support growth, activity, and...
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I. INTRODUCTION Resilience is defined as the ability to successfully cope and thrive when faced with environmental disturbance, adversity, and stress. Across an animal’s lifetime, they will be exposed to many stressors that require the individual to adapt and maintain internal homeostasis against external variability. For a laying hen, these stressors could include pathogens, vaccinations, extreme temperature variations, transfer from pullet to layer housing, and conspecific...
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I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, there has been a growing public interest in animal welfare in Australia (De Witte, K., 2009). Consumers expect continual and comprehensive improvements in poultry production (Li, Ren, Li, & Zeng, 2020). The health and product quality of poultry also is linked to their welfare. Healthy hens with better emotions tend to lay more eggs of higher quality (Eggs, 2023). The assessment of the welfare of poultry commonly complies with the Welfare Quality...
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Recent research indicates that smothering accounts for up to 16% of mortality in adult laying hens in Australian commercial free-range egg farms (Hemsworth et al., 2022). In addition, UK data indicates that piling (a precursor to smothering where hens press tightly together into dense packs) has implications not only for the risk of mortality due to smothering, but also may negatively impact egg production (Armstrong et al., 2023). Smothering research to date has been focused on identifying...
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Laying hens have a cyclic reproductive physiology that requires high dietary protein and energy levels for yolk and albumen formation in the early morning and high dietary Ca levels for shell and membrane formation in the afternoon/evening. Therefore, feeding one diet throughout each day may be problematic as there is excess Ca in the morning and excess protein/amino acids and energy in the afternoon/evening. To minimise excess nutrients, there is increasing interest in alternative...
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Adult chickens utilise external circadian cues to schedule their daily cycles. In other taxa, developing embryos can actively entrain the timing of life transitions to a circadian rhythm (Villamizar et al., 2013, Saunders, 2002), but we currently have a poor understanding of how circadian rhythms develop in meat chicken embryos. Commercial poultry are not exposed to diurnal light changes during incubation, removing the possible use of such cues for optimising hatch timing. Synchronising...
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Mycotoxins are known to decrease health and performance in poultry production. Their modes of action, such as reducing protein synthesis and promoting oxidative stress and apoptosis, lead to cell destruction and lower cell replacement, affecting several organs and tissues. When different stress factors collude, such as high temperatures and humidity, poor ventilation, high stocking density, and management events, the effects of in-feed mycotoxins can reach a higher level, which may...
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1. Introduction The performance and activities of male breeders (roosters) are critical for egg fertility and hatchability in commercial layer and broiler breeding houses [1,2]. In a study, researchers found positive correlations between rooster body weight and both the laying intensity of fertilized eggs and the hatchability percentage of chicks [2]. A review by Kingor [1] underscores the importance of how the physical conditions and management of roosters can directly impact...
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FIGAP 2026: The Scientific And Technological Exhibition Of The Livestock Industry
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Cristabel Huerta, Brightness Consultant at HATO Lighting, shares how intelligent lighting systems can help reduce energy consumption while supporting animal welfare and improving farm efficiency. ...
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Cristabel Huerta, Brightness Consultant at HATO Lighting, explains how innovative lighting solutions can improve bird welfare, optimize farm conditions, and enhance overall poultry performance. ...
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Cristabel Huerta, Brightness Consultant at HATO Lighting, discusses the advantages of modern poultry lighting and the key challenges it can solve beyond basic illumination. ...
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Cristabel Huerta, Brightness Consultant at HATO Lighting, explains how improved dimming, natural lighting conditions, and HATO’s latest innovations help farmers create smarter, more sustainable, and productive poultry operations.
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Introduction With genetic improvement changes, today poultry species are more sensitive to nutritional and management changes which can easily induce osmoregulatory perturbation that can cause flushing (Many, 2023). A typical layer farm of 100,000 hens produces 1,500 to 2,000 tons of manure every year (Chai, 2012). And 1000 broilers chickens produce up to 1370 lbs of manure per in a growing cycle (Parker et al., 1959). Manure is acquired by the agricultural industry for land...
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Leg health is an integral part of the economics of poultry. It is estimated that approximately 12.5 billion poultry worldwide suffer from various leg injuries each year (Nicol, 2013; Xu et al.,2025). According to a review of Huang et al (2023), leg diseases in the United States have caused economic losses of more than 80 million to 120 million US dollars in the broiler industry (Huang et al. 2023). These could indirectly lead to a further decline in reprocessing margins and reduce the gross...
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INTRODUCTION The world’s population is growing exponentially, causing a rise in demand for animal-based protein. To meet the meat demand, broiler chickens have been genetically selected for higher feed efficiency and high muscle yield. As a result, these broiler chickens produce a high amount of metabolic body heat and are highly susceptible to heat stress (HS), especially during the summer. Moreover, chickens lack sweat glands and have feather covers, which make them extremely...
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When it comes to setting minimum ventilation fan runtimes during cold weather it is important to keep in mind that one of the primary objectives of minimum ventilation is to manage house moisture levels. Too much fan runtime will not only result in excessive moisture removal from a house, leading to dry, dusty conditions which can lead to bird respiratory issues, but it will also result in high heating costs. Conversely, if the minimum ventilation fans are not operated enough, too little...
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Introduction Heat stress is one of the major problems of poultry in heat areas of the world including Iran, especially in summer, leading to reduced performance, the production, feed intake, growth rates and effective use of the feed (Sahin ., 2009). In general, birds have a thermal comfort zone, which ranges between 18 to 22 ° C and no problem for the physiological regulation of body temperature in this range will. Birds lack sweat glands, increase in...
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Thermal stress happens when the animal leaves its thermal comfort zone, it means neither too cold nor too hot, let's say it feels good. In both of the cases, the stress due to heat and cold, the problem itself is not the temperature alone, but its relation to relative humidity level. The...
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