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The Effect of the Type of Non-Caged Housing System, Genotype and Age on the Behaviour of Laying Hens

SIMPLE SUMMARY: For several years, a constant decreasing trend has been observed in the number of hens housed in the cage system in favour of non-caged systems, i.e., deep-litter, free-range and organic systems. This study investigated the welfare of laying hens in different non-caged housing system...

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Autores principales: Sokołowicz, Zofia, Dykiel, Magdalena, Topczewska, Jadwiga, Krawczyk, Józefa, Augustyńska-Prejsnar, Anna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7767380/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33371385
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10122450
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author Sokołowicz, Zofia
Dykiel, Magdalena
Topczewska, Jadwiga
Krawczyk, Józefa
Augustyńska-Prejsnar, Anna
author_facet Sokołowicz, Zofia
Dykiel, Magdalena
Topczewska, Jadwiga
Krawczyk, Józefa
Augustyńska-Prejsnar, Anna
author_sort Sokołowicz, Zofia
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: For several years, a constant decreasing trend has been observed in the number of hens housed in the cage system in favour of non-caged systems, i.e., deep-litter, free-range and organic systems. This study investigated the welfare of laying hens in different non-caged housing systems, namely a deep-litter barn system, a free-range system and an organic system. The study was conducted on hens of a native breed Green-legged Partridge (Z-11) and Hy-Line Brown hybrids. Dustbathing, scratching, wing-leg stretching, wing flapping and preening were recorded as comfort behaviours. Pecking, fighting, threatening and chasing were recorded as agonistic behaviours. The native breed of hen chose to use the outdoor area more often than the commercial breed of hen, which may be a result of better adaptation to the local environmental conditions. The type of non-caged egg production system influenced the percentage of hens displaying comfort and agonistic behaviours in these laying hens. A greater proportion of comfort behaviours were observed in the free-range system and organic system compared with the deep-litter system, which may indicate a higher level of behavioural welfare of laying hens in these systems. ABSTRACT: This study investigated the welfare of laying hens in different non-caged housing systems, namely a deep-litter barn system (BS), a free-range system (FRS) and an organic system (OS). The study was conducted on 270 hens of a native breed Green-legged Partridge (Z-11) and 270 Hy-Line Brown hybrids. Visual scans were performed to record behaviour of hens. Hens were housed in groups of 30 and observed over the course of one day at 20, 36 and 56 weeks of age. Dustbathing, scratching, wing stretching, wing flapping and preening were recorded as comfort behaviours. Pecking, fighting, threatening and chasing were recorded as agonistic behaviours. The percentage of run use was higher in native hens than in commercial hens (p < 0.05). The proportion of hens exhibiting comfort behaviours housed in the FRS and OS was similar but over twice as high as in the BS (p < 0.05). In the FRS and OS, the percentage of hens displaying comfort behaviours increased with age (p < 0.05). In all the production systems, the percentage of birds displaying comfort behaviours was higher in native breed hens than in commercial breeds (p < 0.05). In the BS, the higher proportion of hens displaying an agonistic behaviour was seen more in commercial breed than in the native breed hens (p < 0.05). The percentage of birds displaying an agonistic behaviour declined with hen age, both in commercial and native breed hens.
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spelling pubmed-77673802020-12-28 The Effect of the Type of Non-Caged Housing System, Genotype and Age on the Behaviour of Laying Hens Sokołowicz, Zofia Dykiel, Magdalena Topczewska, Jadwiga Krawczyk, Józefa Augustyńska-Prejsnar, Anna Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: For several years, a constant decreasing trend has been observed in the number of hens housed in the cage system in favour of non-caged systems, i.e., deep-litter, free-range and organic systems. This study investigated the welfare of laying hens in different non-caged housing systems, namely a deep-litter barn system, a free-range system and an organic system. The study was conducted on hens of a native breed Green-legged Partridge (Z-11) and Hy-Line Brown hybrids. Dustbathing, scratching, wing-leg stretching, wing flapping and preening were recorded as comfort behaviours. Pecking, fighting, threatening and chasing were recorded as agonistic behaviours. The native breed of hen chose to use the outdoor area more often than the commercial breed of hen, which may be a result of better adaptation to the local environmental conditions. The type of non-caged egg production system influenced the percentage of hens displaying comfort and agonistic behaviours in these laying hens. A greater proportion of comfort behaviours were observed in the free-range system and organic system compared with the deep-litter system, which may indicate a higher level of behavioural welfare of laying hens in these systems. ABSTRACT: This study investigated the welfare of laying hens in different non-caged housing systems, namely a deep-litter barn system (BS), a free-range system (FRS) and an organic system (OS). The study was conducted on 270 hens of a native breed Green-legged Partridge (Z-11) and 270 Hy-Line Brown hybrids. Visual scans were performed to record behaviour of hens. Hens were housed in groups of 30 and observed over the course of one day at 20, 36 and 56 weeks of age. Dustbathing, scratching, wing stretching, wing flapping and preening were recorded as comfort behaviours. Pecking, fighting, threatening and chasing were recorded as agonistic behaviours. The percentage of run use was higher in native hens than in commercial hens (p < 0.05). The proportion of hens exhibiting comfort behaviours housed in the FRS and OS was similar but over twice as high as in the BS (p < 0.05). In the FRS and OS, the percentage of hens displaying comfort behaviours increased with age (p < 0.05). In all the production systems, the percentage of birds displaying comfort behaviours was higher in native breed hens than in commercial breeds (p < 0.05). In the BS, the higher proportion of hens displaying an agonistic behaviour was seen more in commercial breed than in the native breed hens (p < 0.05). The percentage of birds displaying an agonistic behaviour declined with hen age, both in commercial and native breed hens. MDPI 2020-12-21 /pmc/articles/PMC7767380/ /pubmed/33371385 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10122450 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sokołowicz, Zofia
Dykiel, Magdalena
Topczewska, Jadwiga
Krawczyk, Józefa
Augustyńska-Prejsnar, Anna
The Effect of the Type of Non-Caged Housing System, Genotype and Age on the Behaviour of Laying Hens
title The Effect of the Type of Non-Caged Housing System, Genotype and Age on the Behaviour of Laying Hens
title_full The Effect of the Type of Non-Caged Housing System, Genotype and Age on the Behaviour of Laying Hens
title_fullStr The Effect of the Type of Non-Caged Housing System, Genotype and Age on the Behaviour of Laying Hens
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of the Type of Non-Caged Housing System, Genotype and Age on the Behaviour of Laying Hens
title_short The Effect of the Type of Non-Caged Housing System, Genotype and Age on the Behaviour of Laying Hens
title_sort effect of the type of non-caged housing system, genotype and age on the behaviour of laying hens
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7767380/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33371385
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10122450
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