Welfare and Performance of Three Turkey Breeds—Comparison between Infrared Beak Treatment and Natural Beak Abrasion by Pecking on a Screed Grinding Wheel

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Beak trimming of turkeys is an animal welfare issue. It can result in acute pain, potential chronic pain, and a change in feeding, drinking, and pecking ability and general behavior. It is still permitted by law in Germany when the intervention is necessary to protect turkeys from feather pecking and cannibalism. In the present study, an alternative method using grinding wheels (blunting disks) that were fitted in the feed pans when the turkeys were six weeks old was tested. The disks were expected to blunt the beak tips during feeding and reduce the severity of pecking injuries. Six hundred male turkeys of three breeds (B.U.T. 6, B.U.T. Premium, Auburn) were housed separately in 24 groups. The birds in 12 groups were beak trimmed, those in the other 12 were not, but received the blunting disk. The results showed a noticeable beak abrasion in birds provided with blunting disk. Injuries and plumage conditions were equivalent between the treatments. Summarized, the blunting method may be an alternative to infrared beak treatment, but its effectiveness should be confirmed under commercial conditions. The blunting method could potentially result in improved animal welfare of turkeys by minimizing acute pain, chronic pain, and injurious pecking. ABSTRACT: Feather pecking and cannibalism are behavioral disorders that cause animal-welfare-relevant and economic problems. To mitigate these problems, the beaks of conventionally reared turkeys are usually already trimmed in the hatcheries. To find an alternative to beak trimming, we conducted this study with male turkeys of three breeds: B.U.T. 6, B.U.T. Premium and, Auburn (200 turkeys per breed). Half of the birds had infrared-trimmed beaks; the other half had intact beaks. For each treatment combination (breed, beak status), 25 turkeys were housed in one section. A screed grinding wheel was installed in each feed pan of the non-beak-trimmed turkeys as of week six to facilitate natural beak abrasion until slaughter. Eight randomly selected turkeys per section were regularly examined to record injuries, plumage condition, and beak dimensions. In addition, 96 beaks from randomly slaughtered birds were examined macroscopically and histologically. The results concerning injuries and plumage condition showed in most cases no differences between the beak-trimmed turkeys and the ones provided with the blunting disks. The histological examinations revealed alterations in only the beak-trimmed birds. We can conclude that the blunting method smoothens the beak during feeding and thus may be a possible alternative to beak trimming.