PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Severe feather pecking, the pulling out of feathers of conspecifics, is a major welfare issue in laying hens. Possible underlying causes are fearfulness and lack of foraging opportunities. Because early life is a crucial stage in behavioral development, adapting the incubation and rearing environment to the birds\' needs may reduce fearfulness and prevent the development of feather pecking. In a 2 × 2 factorial design study, we investigated whether a green light-dark cycle throughout incubation, which resembles natural incubation circumstances more than the standard dark incubation, and foraging enrichment with live larvae during rearing reduce fearfulness and feather pecking and increase foraging behavior of laying hen pullets from an early age onwards. In this 2-batch experiment, 1,100 ISA Brown eggs were incubated under either 0 h of light/24 h of darkness or 12 h of green LED light/12 h of darkness. After hatching, 400 female chicks (200 per batch) were housed in 44 pens (8-10 chicks per pen). During the entire rearing phase (0-17 wk of age), half of the pens received black soldier fly larvae in a food puzzle as foraging enrichment. We assessed fear of novel objects and humans, feather pecking, plumage condition, foraging behavior, and recovery time after a 3-fold vaccination (acute stressor). A slight increase in the number of foraging bouts was only seen with larvae provisioning (rate ratio 1.19, 95% CI 1.02-1.29, P = 0.008). Neither lighted incubation nor larvae provisioning affected fearfulness, feather pecking, plumage condition or recovery time after vaccination. In conclusion, the present study showed no effects of light during incubation and minor effects of foraging enrichment during rearing on the behavior of laying hen pullets. Further research is recommended on other welfare aspects.
摘要：
严重的羽毛啄食，拔出物种的羽毛，是蛋鸡的主要福利问题。可能的根本原因是恐惧和缺乏觅食机会。因为早期生活是行为发展的关键阶段，使孵化和饲养环境适应鸟类的需求可能会减少恐惧并防止羽毛啄食的发展。在2×2阶乘设计研究中，我们调查了整个孵化过程中的绿色明暗循环，比标准的黑暗孵化更像自然孵化环境，在饲养过程中用活幼虫觅食丰富，可以减少恐惧和啄食羽毛，并从幼年开始增加产蛋母鸡的觅食行为。在这个两批实验中，将1,100ISA棕色卵在0小时的光照/24小时的黑暗或12小时的绿色LED光/12小时的黑暗下孵育。孵化后，将400只雌性小鸡(每批200只)饲养在44个围栏中(每个围栏8-10只小鸡)。在整个饲养阶段（0-17周年龄），一半的围栏在食物拼图中接受了黑色士兵苍蝇幼虫作为觅食富集。我们评估了对新物体和人类的恐惧，羽毛啄食,羽毛状况,觅食行为,和3倍疫苗接种后的恢复时间（急性应激源）。仅在提供幼虫时，觅食次数才略有增加（比率1.19，95％CI1.02-1.29，P=0.008）。点燃的孵化和幼虫的供应都不会影响恐惧，羽毛啄食,接种疫苗后的羽毛状况或恢复时间。总之,本研究表明，在孵化过程中没有光的影响，而在饲养过程中觅食富集对蛋鸡小肉的行为影响很小。建议对其他福利方面进行进一步研究。
