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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.
INTRODUCTION Animals must be able to perceive, store, and retrieve information in order to navigate their environment and maximize the ratio of benefits to costs. Birds should have good spatial cognition, allowing them to remember specific routes and landmarks so as to optimally utilize resources such as food, water, perches, and nests. They also need to use their knowledge of routes and landmarks effectively to escape...
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Introduction Following the EU Council Directive ban on conventional ‘battery’ cages (99/74/EC) which came into full effect in January 2012 [1], concerns for the welfare implications of certain rearing and production system combinations have arisen. Previous studies indicate that rearing conditions affect the welfare of birds in the producing stage. Nicol et al. [2] found that previous exposure to wood shavings...
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Sustainability and profitability in animal production: a necessary and possible balance
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Andrew M. Janczak, Associate Professor, Laboratory Head of the Norwegian University of Life Science speaks about the rearing effects on laying hen productivity and welfare....
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Dr. Janice M. Siegford, Research Assistant Professor at Michigan State University speaks about his presentation on laying hen behavior, welfare quality assessments and stress measures. ...
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Introduction Footpad dermatitis (FPD), also called footpad lesions or pododermatitis, is a major welfare concern in broiler chickens. Severe FPD is likely to be painful for the birds, and because of its association with litter quality it also reflects other welfare aspects (Haslam et al. , 2007).Wet litter is the most important factor causing FPD in broiler chickens (Shepherd et al. 2010). It can be...
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Introduction
A concern over how to feed the rising human population while at the same time minimizing the effect on the environment has led to calls for agriculture to become more ‘sustainably intensive’ and more efficient. (Royal Society, 2009; Steinfeld et al., 2006; Garnett et al., 2013; Gerber et al., 2013). The human population is projected to be at least 9 billion by 2050 (FAOStat, 2009;...
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Animal rights versus animal welfare have been discussed in the previous articles. This article ramifies the implementation of certain laws and regulations being adopted in different countries internationally in specific relation to the Commercial Industry. Purposely, not only encouraging these laws but also working on the possible ways of their grass roots implementations in the developing countries also. The welfare code for slaughtering the commercial animals...
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I. INTRODUCTION
Broiler lameness is one of the top welfare issues facing the modern broiler industry. Despite the improvements in nutrition, health and genetics over the past decades, too many flocks end up with birds that are partially or completely immobile. Europe has focused more on the welfare aspect of lameness; however, the US industry is taking welfare more seriously as more major retailers, lead by...
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The Poultry CRC is conducting a survey of free range poultry farms across the country. The survey results will underpin the commissioning of rational, evidence-based research projects to address the important scientific and commercial questions pertaining to free range operations. The survey team, led by Dr Mini Singh of The University of Sydney, will consist of researchers from numerous partners including the South Australian R&D Institute (SARDI), the...
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J R Soc Interface. Dec 7, 2012; 9(77): 3436–3443. PMCID: PMC3481599 Published online Sep 5, 2012. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2012.0594 This journal is © 2012 The Royal Society Abstract Currently, assessment of broiler (meat) chicken welfare relies largely on labour-intensive or post-mortem measures of welfare. We here describe a method for continuously and robustly monitoring the welfare of living...
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Evaluation of methionine sources on performance and carcass traits of broilers at different dietary sulfur amino acid levels under northern European and middle Eastern conditions
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Dr Lauren Edwards undertook her PhD, titled Human-animal interactions in the laying hen , with support from the first round Australian Poultry CRC (2003-2009) under the supervision of Professors Paul Hemsworth and Grahame Coleman. Now employed as a lecturer in Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Unitec Institute of Technology in New Zealand, Lauren’s research results suggest that the human-animal relationship is very important for laying...
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New Poultry CRC research is aimed at developing a non-invasive test to assess welfare status in birds. The project is led by joint project leaders Drs Tamsyn Crowley and Anthony Keyburn, from Poultry CRC participants, Deakin University and CSIRO, respectively. Anthony and Tamsyn plan to use cutting-edge genetic technology to create a new test, which will exploit the properties of small non-coding ribonucleic acids (RNAs), called microRNAs or...
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Effects of DON and antidote on pro-inflammatory mRNA expression of broiler
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Since consumers are becoming more and more interested in animal welfare, there is an increasing concern about how some practices can affect the welfare of chickens and the quality of the finished product due to cramped conditions. I would like to know your opinion about the alternative farming methods like enriched cages, cage-free farming, free range and organic. Look forward to hearing your experiences!!! ...
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The welfare of poultry is a key concern to veterinarians and poultry producers in developed countries of the world. In developing countries where poultry welfare may not currently be a primary concern at present, it likely to become more important in the future as the global trend of increasing awareness of animal welfare develops further. There are many factors which impact on, and influence poultry welfare...
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All forms of unnecessary suffering by animals must be avoided, but religious freedom must be respected, says the Agriculture Committee, which voted on Monday on plans to tighten up the rules on animal welfare at the time of slaughter.
Every year in the European Union, 360 million pigs, cattle, sheep and goats are killed, as are over 4 billion poultry birds and 25 million animals reared for fur. In a consultation report drafted by Janusz Wojciechowski (UEN, PL), the Agriculture...
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Two new chicken breeds for the ‘welfare friendly’ sector of the market were launched by Cobb Europe at the British Pig and Poultry Fair. The Cobb 700, developed initially for heavy bird markets seeking high breast meat yield, has the slower growing attributes and robust health that make it suited to the higher welfare version of the standard chicken. “Our farm trails show that the Cobb 700 is the perfect fit for this increasingly significant market,” says Euan...
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The type of housing and stocking densities of egg laying hens has become a growing concern for the egg laying industry and a point of interest for animal welfare conscious consumers. The typical conventional battery caged hen in Alberta receives 432 square centimetres floor area. New requirements in the European Union (EU) will require all hens by 2012 to be provided with enriched cages and receive 750 square centimetres of floor area per bird. The EU decision was driven by the recognition that...
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With pride Hubbard announces that they have become the 2nd largest broiler breeder supplier into the UK market. This success follows Hubbard’s strategy set out many years ago. The UK is the largest broiler breeder market in Europe, and for a long time it has been dominated by 2 UK-based primary breeders. But this has all been changed now through Hubbard’s clear focus on product needs, product development and the investments made by starting up their own production facilities in the...
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Sustainability and profitability in animal production: a necessary and possible balance
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Minister for Primary Industries Ian Macdonald, said changes have been made to rules governing the size of layer hen cages to enhance the welfare of layer hens in NSW. Mr Macdonald said the amendments were made to regulations under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 (POCTA). "These changes will improve the welfare of poultry kept for egg production and ensure the industry remains both profitable and productive," he said. "They have been...
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Research into the welfare of commercial broiler chickens in New Zealand has found that welfare standards are equal or superior to that of broilers kept elsewhere.
The aim of the research was to identify appropriate welfare indicators for broilers and then apply them to quantify the welfare status of New Zealand commercial broiler flocks.
“We wanted to be confident that the standards of welfare specified in codes and practised on New Zealand farms were acceptable. It was found that New...
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