Abstract：
1. In recent years, public concern regarding animal welfare has increased while, at the same time, cage systems for animal production have been greatly criticised by EU citizens. In addition, large food retailers promote food products that are made with eggs produced in cage-free systems.2. The objective of this study was to evaluate the economic viability of the transition of laying hens\' to production systems; from conventional to alternative systems with improved welfare. Three independent scenarios were assumed as follows: transition from enriched colony cages to barn (S1), transition from barn to free-range (S2), and transition from free-range to organic (S3). Economic assessments of each transition was applied to a model farm in Greece with 12 000 hens, through partial budget analysis and net benefits and costs were estimated.3. The results showed a positive economic impact in all transitions to a production system of improved animal welfare (€12,044 in S1, €18,957 in S2 and €7,977 in S3) which indicated that they are economically sustainable. In all scenarios, unit cost increased by 19% in S1, 12% in S2, and 85% in S3.4. In conclusion, transitioning towards improved animal welfare production systems in laying hen farms could be an economically viable option for egg producers in compliance with societal demands and market trends.
摘要：
1.近年来,公众对动物福利的关注有所增加，同时,动物生产的笼子系统受到了欧盟公民的极大批评。此外,大型食品零售商推广用无笼系统生产的鸡蛋制成的食品2.这项研究的目的是评估蛋鸡向生产系统过渡的经济可行性；从传统系统到具有改善福利的替代系统。假设三个独立的情景如下：从富集的菌落笼过渡到谷仓（S1），从谷仓过渡到自由范围(S2)，并从自由范围过渡到有机（S3）。对每个转型的经济评估都应用于希腊的一个有12000只母鸡的示范农场，通过部分预算分析和净效益和成本进行了估计。结果显示，在向改善动物福利的生产系统的所有过渡中（S1为12,044欧元，S2为18,957欧元，S3为7,977欧元）都产生了积极的经济影响，这表明它们在经济上是可持续的。在所有情况下，S1的单位成本增加了19%，S2的单位成本增加了12%，S3.4的单位成本增加了85%。总之,在蛋鸡养殖场向改善动物福利生产系统过渡，对于鸡蛋生产者来说，符合社会需求和市场趋势，在经济上是可行的选择。
