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Effects of edible environmental enrichments during the rearing and laying periods in a littered aviary—Part 1: integument condition in pullets and laying hens

Severe feather pecking is a damaging allopecking behavior in pullets and laying hens which was found to be associated with multiple factors. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the occurrence of feather pecking could be reduced by additional environmental enrichment materials (EM; pecki...

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Autores principales: Schreiter, Ruben, Damme, Klaus, Klunker, Michael, Raoult, Camille, von Borell, Eberhard, Freick, Markus
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7647713/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33142434
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2020.07.013
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author Schreiter, Ruben
Damme, Klaus
Klunker, Michael
Raoult, Camille
von Borell, Eberhard
Freick, Markus
author_facet Schreiter, Ruben
Damme, Klaus
Klunker, Michael
Raoult, Camille
von Borell, Eberhard
Freick, Markus
author_sort Schreiter, Ruben
collection PubMed
description Severe feather pecking is a damaging allopecking behavior in pullets and laying hens which was found to be associated with multiple factors. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the occurrence of feather pecking could be reduced by additional environmental enrichment materials (EM; pecking stones and hard-pressed alfalfa bales) in a littered housing system. In total 4,000 pullets (2000 Lohmann Brown classic [LB] and 2000 Lohmann Selected Leghorn classic [LSL]) were reared in an aviary system until week 18, and 1,320 remaining laying hens were kept thereafter, from week 19 to 48. During rearing, half of the compartments were permanently supplied with enrichment materials, while the other half did not receive any EM. After transferring to the laying hens’ stable, we examined the hens under four treatment variants: V1 - no EM over the entire study period; V2 - rearing period with and laying period without EM; V3 - rearing period without and laying period with EM; V4 - EM over the entire study period. The integument condition (i.e. beak protrusion, beak fissures, plumage condition, skin and toe injuries, and foot pad dermatitis) was scored in weeks 2, 4, 6, 10, 14, 18 (rearing) and 25, 30, 40, and 48 (laying period). At the end of the study (week 48), lower plumage damage was observed in the variants provided with EM during rearing (V2 and V4) compared to the other two variants (V1 and V3; P < 0.001). Skin injuries were less prevalent in week 40 in hens with access to EM during rearing (V2 and V4) than the other variants (V1 and V3) within LSL (P < 0.001), and in week 48 in the both strains (P < 0.001). The variants with access to EM during the laying period (V3 and V4) showed lesser protrusion of the beak tip in week 48 (P < 0.001). The observed beneficial effects of EM could be attributed to its impact on foraging behavior and beak-tip abrasion.
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spelling pubmed-76477132020-11-13 Effects of edible environmental enrichments during the rearing and laying periods in a littered aviary—Part 1: integument condition in pullets and laying hens Schreiter, Ruben Damme, Klaus Klunker, Michael Raoult, Camille von Borell, Eberhard Freick, Markus Poult Sci Animal Well-Being and Behavior Severe feather pecking is a damaging allopecking behavior in pullets and laying hens which was found to be associated with multiple factors. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the occurrence of feather pecking could be reduced by additional environmental enrichment materials (EM; pecking stones and hard-pressed alfalfa bales) in a littered housing system. In total 4,000 pullets (2000 Lohmann Brown classic [LB] and 2000 Lohmann Selected Leghorn classic [LSL]) were reared in an aviary system until week 18, and 1,320 remaining laying hens were kept thereafter, from week 19 to 48. During rearing, half of the compartments were permanently supplied with enrichment materials, while the other half did not receive any EM. After transferring to the laying hens’ stable, we examined the hens under four treatment variants: V1 - no EM over the entire study period; V2 - rearing period with and laying period without EM; V3 - rearing period without and laying period with EM; V4 - EM over the entire study period. The integument condition (i.e. beak protrusion, beak fissures, plumage condition, skin and toe injuries, and foot pad dermatitis) was scored in weeks 2, 4, 6, 10, 14, 18 (rearing) and 25, 30, 40, and 48 (laying period). At the end of the study (week 48), lower plumage damage was observed in the variants provided with EM during rearing (V2 and V4) compared to the other two variants (V1 and V3; P < 0.001). Skin injuries were less prevalent in week 40 in hens with access to EM during rearing (V2 and V4) than the other variants (V1 and V3) within LSL (P < 0.001), and in week 48 in the both strains (P < 0.001). The variants with access to EM during the laying period (V3 and V4) showed lesser protrusion of the beak tip in week 48 (P < 0.001). The observed beneficial effects of EM could be attributed to its impact on foraging behavior and beak-tip abrasion. Elsevier 2020-08-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7647713/ /pubmed/33142434 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2020.07.013 Text en © 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Poultry Science Association Inc. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Animal Well-Being and Behavior
Schreiter, Ruben
Damme, Klaus
Klunker, Michael
Raoult, Camille
von Borell, Eberhard
Freick, Markus
Effects of edible environmental enrichments during the rearing and laying periods in a littered aviary—Part 1: integument condition in pullets and laying hens
title Effects of edible environmental enrichments during the rearing and laying periods in a littered aviary—Part 1: integument condition in pullets and laying hens
title_full Effects of edible environmental enrichments during the rearing and laying periods in a littered aviary—Part 1: integument condition in pullets and laying hens
title_fullStr Effects of edible environmental enrichments during the rearing and laying periods in a littered aviary—Part 1: integument condition in pullets and laying hens
title_full_unstemmed Effects of edible environmental enrichments during the rearing and laying periods in a littered aviary—Part 1: integument condition in pullets and laying hens
title_short Effects of edible environmental enrichments during the rearing and laying periods in a littered aviary—Part 1: integument condition in pullets and laying hens
title_sort effects of edible environmental enrichments during the rearing and laying periods in a littered aviary—part 1: integument condition in pullets and laying hens
topic Animal Well-Being and Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7647713/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33142434
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2020.07.013
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