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Foraging Behavior Shows Individual-Consistency Over Time, and Predicts Range Use in Slow-Growing Free-Range Male Broiler Chickens

Recent research on free-range chickens shows that individual behavioral differences may link to range use. However, most of these studies explored individual behavioral differences only at one time point or during a short time window, assessed differences when animals were out of their social group...

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Autores principales: Ferreira, Vitor Hugo Bessa, Simoni, Arthur, Germain, Karine, Leterrier, Christine, Lansade, Léa, Collin, Anne, Mignon-Grasteau, Sandrine, Le Bihan-Duval, Elisabeth, Guettier, Elodie, Leruste, Hélène, Løvlie, Hanne, Calandreau, Ludovic, Guesdon, Vanessa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8858978/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35198623
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.814054
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author Ferreira, Vitor Hugo Bessa
Simoni, Arthur
Germain, Karine
Leterrier, Christine
Lansade, Léa
Collin, Anne
Mignon-Grasteau, Sandrine
Le Bihan-Duval, Elisabeth
Guettier, Elodie
Leruste, Hélène
Løvlie, Hanne
Calandreau, Ludovic
Guesdon, Vanessa
author_facet Ferreira, Vitor Hugo Bessa
Simoni, Arthur
Germain, Karine
Leterrier, Christine
Lansade, Léa
Collin, Anne
Mignon-Grasteau, Sandrine
Le Bihan-Duval, Elisabeth
Guettier, Elodie
Leruste, Hélène
Løvlie, Hanne
Calandreau, Ludovic
Guesdon, Vanessa
author_sort Ferreira, Vitor Hugo Bessa
collection PubMed
description Recent research on free-range chickens shows that individual behavioral differences may link to range use. However, most of these studies explored individual behavioral differences only at one time point or during a short time window, assessed differences when animals were out of their social group and home environment (barn and range), and in specific tests or situations. Therefore, it is yet unclear how different behaviors relate to range use and how consistent these behaviors are at the individual level. To fill this gap, we here aimed to describe the behavioral budget of slow-growing male broiler chickens (S757N) when in their social group and home environment during the whole rearing period (from the second week of life to the twelfth week, before slaughter), and to relate observed behavioral differences to range use. For this, we followed a sample of individuals in two flocks (n = 60 focal chickens out of 200 chickens per flock), over two seasons, during three periods: before range access (from 14 to 25 days old), during early range access (first weeks of range access, from 37 to 53 days old), and during late range access (last weeks of range access, from 63 to 87 days old). By the end of each period, individual tests of exploration and social motivation were also performed, measuring exploration/activity and sociability propensities. Our results show that foraging (i.e., pecking and scratching at the ground) was the only behavior that correlated to range use for all three rearing periods, independent of the season. Foraging was also the only behavior that showed within-individual consistency from an early age and across the three rearing periods. Foraging may, therefore, serve as a useful behavioral predictor of range use in free-range broiler chickens. Our study increases the knowledge of how behaviors develop and relate to each other in a domesticated and intensely selected species, and improves our understanding of the biology of free-range broiler chickens. These findings can, ultimately, serve as a foundation to increase range use and improve chicken welfare.
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spelling pubmed-88589782022-02-22 Foraging Behavior Shows Individual-Consistency Over Time, and Predicts Range Use in Slow-Growing Free-Range Male Broiler Chickens Ferreira, Vitor Hugo Bessa Simoni, Arthur Germain, Karine Leterrier, Christine Lansade, Léa Collin, Anne Mignon-Grasteau, Sandrine Le Bihan-Duval, Elisabeth Guettier, Elodie Leruste, Hélène Løvlie, Hanne Calandreau, Ludovic Guesdon, Vanessa Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science Recent research on free-range chickens shows that individual behavioral differences may link to range use. However, most of these studies explored individual behavioral differences only at one time point or during a short time window, assessed differences when animals were out of their social group and home environment (barn and range), and in specific tests or situations. Therefore, it is yet unclear how different behaviors relate to range use and how consistent these behaviors are at the individual level. To fill this gap, we here aimed to describe the behavioral budget of slow-growing male broiler chickens (S757N) when in their social group and home environment during the whole rearing period (from the second week of life to the twelfth week, before slaughter), and to relate observed behavioral differences to range use. For this, we followed a sample of individuals in two flocks (n = 60 focal chickens out of 200 chickens per flock), over two seasons, during three periods: before range access (from 14 to 25 days old), during early range access (first weeks of range access, from 37 to 53 days old), and during late range access (last weeks of range access, from 63 to 87 days old). By the end of each period, individual tests of exploration and social motivation were also performed, measuring exploration/activity and sociability propensities. Our results show that foraging (i.e., pecking and scratching at the ground) was the only behavior that correlated to range use for all three rearing periods, independent of the season. Foraging was also the only behavior that showed within-individual consistency from an early age and across the three rearing periods. Foraging may, therefore, serve as a useful behavioral predictor of range use in free-range broiler chickens. Our study increases the knowledge of how behaviors develop and relate to each other in a domesticated and intensely selected species, and improves our understanding of the biology of free-range broiler chickens. These findings can, ultimately, serve as a foundation to increase range use and improve chicken welfare. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8858978/ /pubmed/35198623 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.814054 Text en Copyright © 2022 Ferreira, Simoni, Germain, Leterrier, Lansade, Collin, Mignon-Grasteau, Le Bihan-Duval, Guettier, Leruste, Løvlie, Calandreau and Guesdon. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
Ferreira, Vitor Hugo Bessa
Simoni, Arthur
Germain, Karine
Leterrier, Christine
Lansade, Léa
Collin, Anne
Mignon-Grasteau, Sandrine
Le Bihan-Duval, Elisabeth
Guettier, Elodie
Leruste, Hélène
Løvlie, Hanne
Calandreau, Ludovic
Guesdon, Vanessa
Foraging Behavior Shows Individual-Consistency Over Time, and Predicts Range Use in Slow-Growing Free-Range Male Broiler Chickens
title Foraging Behavior Shows Individual-Consistency Over Time, and Predicts Range Use in Slow-Growing Free-Range Male Broiler Chickens
title_full Foraging Behavior Shows Individual-Consistency Over Time, and Predicts Range Use in Slow-Growing Free-Range Male Broiler Chickens
title_fullStr Foraging Behavior Shows Individual-Consistency Over Time, and Predicts Range Use in Slow-Growing Free-Range Male Broiler Chickens
title_full_unstemmed Foraging Behavior Shows Individual-Consistency Over Time, and Predicts Range Use in Slow-Growing Free-Range Male Broiler Chickens
title_short Foraging Behavior Shows Individual-Consistency Over Time, and Predicts Range Use in Slow-Growing Free-Range Male Broiler Chickens
title_sort foraging behavior shows individual-consistency over time, and predicts range use in slow-growing free-range male broiler chickens
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8858978/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35198623
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.814054
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