Cage-free pullets can endure excessive ranges of stress when examined with a excessive stocking density and tight feeder areas, indicating that these stressors don’t affect welfare, in keeping with analysis from Purdue College.
A pullet’s atmosphere can have an enduring affect on habits, welfare, well being and productiveness, and the analysis findings present that present cage-free rearing practices are efficient and that producers can make the most of a variety of stocking densities, defined Jennie-O Workers Veterinarian Meagan Abraham, PhD, on the 2024 PEAK convention.
“The outcomes of those research present that pullets are resilient and immune to a number of stressors,” she acknowledged.
At the moment, there aren’t any cage-free stocking density pointers for pullets within the U.S., solely suggestions from genetics firms. To assist set up parameters that egg producers can use, Abraham and her crew carried out analysis to guage density necessities for pullets in cage-free methods and determine measurements of stress and welfare in pullets.
How can the business measure stress in birds?
A number of the welfare parameters evaluated within the analysis included feather protection, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and bursal dimension. Nonetheless, it stays unclear if any of those parameters can definitively be used to measure stress, she defined.
A decrease stocking density confirmed to trigger an even bigger bursa in cage-free pullets, however Abraham is unclear if this considerably impacts chicken immunity. Moreover, feather protection and FCR had been barely improved in decrease stocking density environments, nevertheless, the outcomes appear to be extremely depending on the pressure of chicken getting used, as white strains confirmed to thrive higher in anxious environments in comparison with brown strains.
“We evaluated a large number stress and welfare parameters, nevertheless, a lot of the measurements we checked out had been solely affected by pressure and age, only a few had been affected by stocking density,” she stated. Abraham additionally questioned if genetic choice is taking part in a job in stress toleration.
Sooner or later, Abraham stated extra analysis needs to be carried out to find out if these stressors have an effect on the pullet into maturity and if the identical pullet welfare outcomes could be obtained in business settings.
