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Individual plumage and integument scoring of laying hens on commercial farms: correlation with severe feather pecking and prognosis by visual scoring on flock level

Various plumage and integument scoring methods are commonly used to deduce the occurrence of severe feather pecking and cannibalism in laying hens. The aim of our study was to provide evidence of correlations between the occurrence of severe feather pecking and our individual plumage scoring system...

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Autores principales: Schwarzer, Angela, Rauch, Elke, Erhard, Michael, Reese, Sven, Schmidt, Paul, Bergmann, Shana, Plattner, Christina, Kaesberg, Anne, Louton, Helen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9449859/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36055026
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2022.102093
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author Schwarzer, Angela
Rauch, Elke
Erhard, Michael
Reese, Sven
Schmidt, Paul
Bergmann, Shana
Plattner, Christina
Kaesberg, Anne
Louton, Helen
author_facet Schwarzer, Angela
Rauch, Elke
Erhard, Michael
Reese, Sven
Schmidt, Paul
Bergmann, Shana
Plattner, Christina
Kaesberg, Anne
Louton, Helen
author_sort Schwarzer, Angela
collection PubMed
description Various plumage and integument scoring methods are commonly used to deduce the occurrence of severe feather pecking and cannibalism in laying hens. The aim of our study was to provide evidence of correlations between the occurrence of severe feather pecking and our individual plumage scoring system used under practical conditions on commercial farms with non–beak-trimmed and beak-trimmed layers (study I). In second step, we aimed to verify whether the results of the elaborate individual scoring may be predicted with a visual scoring method based on the total body scores of groups of birds (study II). For study I we observed the pecking behavior and performed an individual plumage scoring at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a laying period on 8 commercial farms. For study II we performed both an individual and a visual plumage scoring on 49 flocks on 45 farms at the beginning of the laying period and on 43 flocks on 41 farms at the end of the laying period. Spearman's Rho revealed a correlation of the mean feather pecking rate with the total plumage score, the neck–back plumage score, and the total cannibalism score in all observation periods. A high feather pecking rate was correlated with severe plumage damage and the frequent occurrence of skin injuries. We conclude that both the total plumage score and the neck–back plumage score constitute a reliable indicator of the occurrence of severe feather pecking in the flocks assessed in this study. The results of study II suggest that the percental assessment of plumage damage on flock level in 3 categories (“visual score”) leads to a good prognosis of the actual, individually assessed plumage score. Therefore, the application (and documentation) of the visual score on a regular basis can provide a good evaluation of the development of the plumage condition of the flock. The visual score presented in this study is suggested as a suitable instrument for self-evaluation programs on farms.
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spelling pubmed-94498592022-09-08 Individual plumage and integument scoring of laying hens on commercial farms: correlation with severe feather pecking and prognosis by visual scoring on flock level Schwarzer, Angela Rauch, Elke Erhard, Michael Reese, Sven Schmidt, Paul Bergmann, Shana Plattner, Christina Kaesberg, Anne Louton, Helen Poult Sci ANIMAL WELL-BEING AND BEHAVIOR Various plumage and integument scoring methods are commonly used to deduce the occurrence of severe feather pecking and cannibalism in laying hens. The aim of our study was to provide evidence of correlations between the occurrence of severe feather pecking and our individual plumage scoring system used under practical conditions on commercial farms with non–beak-trimmed and beak-trimmed layers (study I). In second step, we aimed to verify whether the results of the elaborate individual scoring may be predicted with a visual scoring method based on the total body scores of groups of birds (study II). For study I we observed the pecking behavior and performed an individual plumage scoring at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a laying period on 8 commercial farms. For study II we performed both an individual and a visual plumage scoring on 49 flocks on 45 farms at the beginning of the laying period and on 43 flocks on 41 farms at the end of the laying period. Spearman's Rho revealed a correlation of the mean feather pecking rate with the total plumage score, the neck–back plumage score, and the total cannibalism score in all observation periods. A high feather pecking rate was correlated with severe plumage damage and the frequent occurrence of skin injuries. We conclude that both the total plumage score and the neck–back plumage score constitute a reliable indicator of the occurrence of severe feather pecking in the flocks assessed in this study. The results of study II suggest that the percental assessment of plumage damage on flock level in 3 categories (“visual score”) leads to a good prognosis of the actual, individually assessed plumage score. Therefore, the application (and documentation) of the visual score on a regular basis can provide a good evaluation of the development of the plumage condition of the flock. The visual score presented in this study is suggested as a suitable instrument for self-evaluation programs on farms. Elsevier 2022-08-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9449859/ /pubmed/36055026 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2022.102093 Text en © 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Poultry Science Association Inc. https://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
Schwarzer, Angela
Rauch, Elke
Erhard, Michael
Reese, Sven
Schmidt, Paul
Bergmann, Shana
Plattner, Christina
Kaesberg, Anne
Louton, Helen
Individual plumage and integument scoring of laying hens on commercial farms: correlation with severe feather pecking and prognosis by visual scoring on flock level
title Individual plumage and integument scoring of laying hens on commercial farms: correlation with severe feather pecking and prognosis by visual scoring on flock level
title_full Individual plumage and integument scoring of laying hens on commercial farms: correlation with severe feather pecking and prognosis by visual scoring on flock level
title_fullStr Individual plumage and integument scoring of laying hens on commercial farms: correlation with severe feather pecking and prognosis by visual scoring on flock level
title_full_unstemmed Individual plumage and integument scoring of laying hens on commercial farms: correlation with severe feather pecking and prognosis by visual scoring on flock level
title_short Individual plumage and integument scoring of laying hens on commercial farms: correlation with severe feather pecking and prognosis by visual scoring on flock level
title_sort individual plumage and integument scoring of laying hens on commercial farms: correlation with severe feather pecking and prognosis by visual scoring on flock level
topic ANIMAL WELL-BEING AND BEHAVIOR
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9449859/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36055026
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2022.102093
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