Explore all the information on
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.
The induction of oxidative stress by heat exposure, as well as the relationship between selenium (Se), selenoproteins and oxidative stress, is well described in the scientific literature (Habibian et al.,2015). Zhao et al. (2017) showed that hydroxy-selenomethionine (OH-SeMet) differently affected the expression of the selenogenome as compared to sodium selenite (SS). Hence, it was hypothesised that dietary supplementation of OH-SeMet may benefit heat stressed finishing broilers due to...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 1
Osteoporosis in laying hens is of health, welfare, and economic concern. During the onset of lay, hens rapidly build up the amount of medullary bone which has less structural integrity instead of structural bone formation (Whitehead, 2004). However, freedom of movement in cage free systems can stimulate structural bone formation to avoid mechanical failure which may improve bone health at the end of laying period. The aim of this study was to compare the ultrastructure features in laying hen...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Avian species rely heavily on vision to provide them with necessary information about their surroundings. Chickens rely on their sense of vision to recognize: Other chickens. Predators. Another chicken's intentions (which allows birds to avoid unwanted aggression). Location of...
Comments : 4
Recommendations: 3
On-Farm Welfare Assessment: Laying Hens In this newsletter we will provide an overview of animal-based indicators that can be used to assess laying hen welfare on the farm, using measures from the Welfare Quality® Assessment protocol (2009). The...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 1
Sustainability and profitability in animal production: a necessary and possible balance
Suggested link
Identifying behavioral signs is key to managing heat stress in poultry Every year, high summer temperatures have important effects on poultry health and welfare. Heat stress occurs when poultry cannot adapt to high environmental temperatures and need to expend energy to...
Comments : 6
Recommendations: 2
Introduction The challenge of the contemporary production of agricultural products is intrinsically linked to optimizing processes and production costs. Ensuring thermal comfort, considering that the intense incidence of solar radiation and the high temperatures observed practically throughout the year in the Brazilian semiarid region can cause stress, causing the animals to decline in production, can increase animal production (Leitão et al., 2013). Therefore,...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 1
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
This award is given to stimulate and reward research with ducks and improve the knowledge base of science as applied to commercial duck production. This research should be for a period of not more than 10 years preceding the presentation of the award.
...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
I. INTRODUCTION
HB trimming is still used worldwide for retrimming birds on farm where required to reduce the risk of or control serious outbreaks of cannibalism and feather pecking. In the review by Glatz (2000) other methods of trimming included a gas beak trimming machine, an electric soldering iron and a cold blade. These methods are only practical to use when retrimming birds on smallholder farms as they are too slow to use on a large number of birds on a...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Effects of superdoses of phytase on peaking Hy-Line W-36 laying hen egg production and egg quality
Suggested link
Maria Soriano, Licensed Veterinary Technician at Biovet-Alquermes, explains the importance of an optimal intestinal function and the natural solutions developed by Biovet to achieve this purpose....
Comments : 2
Recommendations: 2
Damaging pecking, or injurious pecking, is a major animal welfare concern. There are various forms of injurious pecking, including injurious feather pecking, feather picking, cannibalism, and aggressive pecking (see Table 1 on page 2). Not all species or breeds of birds perform...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
A Natural Choice for Growth Enhancement in Farm Animals - 3 ESSDENDIS
Suggested link
Ensuring welfare of birds at the farm is key to maintaining a healthy supply of eggs and chicken during the pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on various industries, including the poultry and livestock sectors. Livestock prices are...
Comments : 1
Recommendations: 1
Air quality control in poultry farms is a fundamental factor to ensure animal welfare, health, and performance. Some environmental parameters are controlled periodically, like humidity and temperature, although there are others, like environmental ammonia concentration, which do not suppose a deep concern for farmers, and whose related economic losses are always underestimated. Ammonia: Origin and effects on poultry Ammonia is a toxic and irritant gas ...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 2
The Poultry Extension Collaborative (PEC) brings you the webinar "Global Standards and Research Advances in Poultry Welfare" on May 25th, from 10:00 am to 1:15 pm EST, via Zoom.
...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
The demand for poultry products continues to rise and, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, so has the popularity of backyard poultry flocks. With the current mandates for social distancing and isolation, those who are spending a greater amount of time at home view it as an...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Modifications...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
1. Introduction The welfare of laying hens has been the subject of interest in consumers, industry, and the government in Chile. The current main egg production system in Chile is the intensive cage system [1], allowing high egg production (3.9 thousand million in 2019) for an increasing human population. Joint efforts have been carried out between the industry, universities, and the government to establish minimum welfare conditions, including the development of the Good...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Decisions that impact hen welfare may be influenced by the expectations of the community, such as development of regulations (Coleman et al., 2018). Although some reaserch has been conducted on Australian consumer attitudes (Bray and Ankeny, 2017), wider community perceptions (for example, vegans) towards laying hen welfare remain largely unknown.
This research was approved by the University of New England’s Human research ethics committee (HE18-235). Focus groups of industry...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Free range hens are exposed to various potential stressors including weather conditions and risk of predation (Gilani et al., 2014). Distress can result in impaired biological functions including reduced reproduction, immunity and growth (Palme, 2012). In order to investigate the impact of early range usage, corticosterone concentrations in egg albumen were measured in response to a stressor (manual handling and relocation) in free range hens. Two groups (n = 625) of commercial free...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
High ambient temperatures coupled with high humidity can be devastating to commercial broilers. Heat stress interferes with the broiler´s comfort and suppresses productive efficiency. Although increased heat is seen as a major problem in poultry production, studies show that it is not only the excessively high temperatures, but also the fluctuation of the temperature which is more detrimental for a broiler to perform. Heat stress is a significant source of economic loss...
Comments : 27
Recommendations: 6
A patented split-feeding program for broiler breeders is disrupting conventional approaches to poultry nutrition. Developed by Trouw Nutrition, a Nutreco company, the split-feeding innovation has demonstrated improved hatching rates and lower feed costs in research centre trials and commercial farm studies.
The system delivers nutrients that support the birds’ requirements for egg formation at different times of day, as research conducted with laying hens shows birds’...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0