Hennovation guidelines on feather pecking and end-of-lay

Recently, two guidelines have been produced in the Hennovation project: One on feather pecking and one on end-of-lay.

Déborah Temple, Thea van Niekerk, Claire Weeks, Xavier Manteca, 2017. Guidelines feather pecking. Hennovation (32 pp).

Déborah Temple, Thea van Niekerk, Claire Weeks, Xavier Manteca, 2017. Guidelines end of lay. Hennovation (24 pp).

Déborah Temple, Thea van Niekerk, Claire Weeks, Xavier Manteca, 2017. Guidelines feather pecking. Hennovation (32 pp).

Déborah Temple, Thea van Niekerk, Claire Weeks, Xavier Manteca, 2017. Guidelines end of lay. Hennovation (24 pp).

Feather pecking: More research on the effect of nutrition

How does animal nutrition in early life influence feather pecking behaviour in adult birds? Wageningen University & Research and partners have started a project to gain more insight into this topic.

Feather pecking in the layer industry is a growing societal and economic concern, since the 2012 EU-ban on battery cages for laying hens. The upcoming ban on beak trimming may increase the severity of injuries caused by feather pecking, and urges for a solution to this major animal welfare problem eventually resulting in a significant economic loss for the farmer.

Read the original article by Emmy Koeleman in All About Feed here

 

 

Survey on poultry red mites finds average cost of 0.15€/hen

A Dutch survey on poultry red mite, which has also been conducted throughout Europe, showed the following results:
At around 80% of the laying-hen farms, red mites were seen. 32% of the
participating farms were able to find the red mites in cracks and crevices; a mild to moderate contamination. At 27% of the farms groups or clusters of mites were visible on the housing system, indicating a serious infection. Main treatments used against red mites were silica products and soaps. Most laying-hen farmers saw a decrease in the number of red mites after treatment, although only 14% of the respondents monitored the red-mite population. Treatments are especially applied when (the first) red mites are visible. Hygiene measures against red mites are mainly taken when the house does not contain laying hens. On average, poultry farmers spent € 0.15 / hen / production period of 73 weeks (min-max; € 0.0005 – € 0.67). It is not possible to draw firm conclusions based on this survey because only 44 farmers responded, i.e. 5% of the total number of Dutch layer farms

The report can be found here (in Dutch).

Poultry red mites

Webinar: Red Mite control

Webinar series Hennovation

Webinar 1: Possibilities to control Poultry Red Mites

Hennovation is a project supporting practice led innovation in the laying hen sector. Groups of farmers, the so called networks, addressed various problems related to feather pecking in laying hens and end-of-lay hens. In total 19 networks were active. Four networks focused on Poultry Red Mites.

The live webinar on ‘Possibilities to control Poultry Red Mites’ took place on Thursday 29 June 2017.

Content:

-Back ground information on the poultry red mite

Findings of four farmers networks. These four farmers networks all worked on the control of this poultry pest and will share their results.

You can see the webinar video here.

Feather peckers and their victims are more prone to fluctuating asymmetry than control hens

Both feather peckers and victims are more asymmetrical than control hens.
By Fernanda M. Tahamtani, Björn Forkman, Lena K. Hinrichsen, Anja B. Riber. 2017. Applied Animal Behaviour Science

Feather pecking is the major welfare issue facing the egg farming industry worldwide. Previous research has found a relationship between cannibalistic behaviour, fluctuating asymmetry of bilateral traits (FA) and body weight in laying hens. As cannibalism is linked to severe feather pecking, it could be suggested that a relationship between feather pecking, FA and body weight also exists. The purpose of this study was to analyse the association between feather pecking behaviour and a) FA, b) body weight and c) comb size in laying hens. Sixty-four laying hens were categorised as feather peckers, victims or control hens based on weekly performance of feather pecking behaviour from age 0–23 weeks and plumage condition at age 23 weeks. After culling at 23 weeks of age, the lengths of ulna, tarsus and middle toe as well as the widths of tarsus and hock were measured twice in each side. Each trait was tested for repeatability, directional asymmetry and antisymmetry. Only the three lengths were considered appropriate for analyses of composite and single-trait FA. Control hens displayed less composite FA (P =0.0005) and less FA of ulna (P =0.0001) than feather peckers and victims. Tarsus asymmetry differed between all categories with victims displaying most, control hens least and feather peckers intermediate levels of asymmetry (P< 0.0001). Victims were also lighter in body weight compared to control hens and feather peckers (P =0.043). No difference was found in comb size between the three categories (P =0.1). The results suggest that feather peckers and victims were exposed to similar levels of negative experiences, causing developmental instability, whereas control hens were less negatively affected than both feather peckers and victims during early life.

Webinar: How to limit the impact of non-beaktrimming on animal welfare in parent stock

 

How to limit the impact of non-beaktrimming on animal welfare in parent stock
This Poultry World webinar delves into the possibilities to limit the impact of non-beaktrimming in parent stock. What is the best way forward with stopping the invasive procedure, without resulting in feather pecking or even cannibalism.

Find out more on June 29. Attendance is free.
Birds are ‘equipped’ by mother nature with a formidable set of weapons. With toes and especially beaks they are able to cause each other quite some harm, especially in modern animal husbandry systems. That is why beak trimming, became a standard operating procedure, with the hot blade and later via infrared treatment directly after hatch. However, with stricter legislation concerning animal welfare, alternatives to beak trimming have been under investigation.
Ingrid de Jong
Senior researcher of Wageningen University, Ingrid de Jong will share her experiences from studying several trials with non-beaktrimmed breeders and will explain the possibilities to prevent birds from starting the peck at each other. Furthermore she will give insights in what to do if the birds start pecking. What management tools are at hand.
Yousef Daoud
Yousef Daoud, product manager breeders at Roxell will explain how natural beak smoothing can safe feed consumption on the one hand and prevent mortality due to pecking on the other hand. With the ‘Natural Beak Smoothing concept’ the beak growth of broiler breeders will be controlled continuously while they are fed.
Fabian Brockotter
The webinar will be hosted by Fabian Brockotter, editor for Poultry World.
Join the experts, attendance is free
Webinar time
The webinar will be broadcast live from Amsterdam, the Netherlands June 29, 2017 at 15.30pm Central European Time. This corresponds with:
• 9.30am in Atlanta, GA;
• 16.30pm in Moscow, Russia;
• 14.30pm in London, UK;
• 20.30pm in Bangkok, Thailand;
• 21.30pm in Beijing, China;For anyone who is unable to follow the webinar, it will be available for streaming at any other date at a later moment.

Join GFIA to prepare for the future

GFIA Europe (May 8-10, Utrecht, the Netherlands) is the place to be to prepare for the future. It is the world’s largest dedicated expo of sustainable agriculture solutions.
The programme includes:

  • Seminar on the future of poultry farming (May 10th, 10.30-12.00hrs, hosted by Fabian Brockotter, Editor in chief Poultry World)
  • The national Dutch poultry congress (May 10th 12-17hrs, hosted by VIV Worldwide and Rabobank)
  • AgTech Leaders Summit where you can listen to H.E. Martijn van Dam (Minister for Agriculture, The Netherlands), Liam Condon (President of Crop Science Division, Bayer AG), Wiebe Draijer (Chairman of the Executive Board Rabobank), Prof. Louise O Fresco (President of the Executive Board Wageningen UR), Marc Calon (President LTO Nederland) and Adam Anders (Adam Anders Managing Partner Anterra Capital).

You can register here.

Animal Transport Guides – Newsletter

Animal Transport Guidelines Project

The European Commission, DG Sante project aims to improve animal welfare around transport. The project will develop and disseminate Guides to Good and Best Practice for animals transported within Europe and to third countries for slaughter, fattening and breeding. Guides will be developed for cattle, horses, pigs, poultry and sheep transport. The project started in May 2015 and will finish by the end of 2018.

The project is divided into 5 tasks
•Task 1: Collection
Collect and collate appropriate best practices implemented and supported by scientific evidence
•Task 2 and 3: Development
Develop practical guidelines with those that will use it
•Task 4: Dissemination
Disseminate these guidelines through the networks of the main European stakeholder groups involved
•Task 5: Verification
To verify if the new transport guidelines reached the end-users

See the project website for more information (e.g. guides, factsheets and roadshows; available in 8 languages: English, German, French, Greek, Romanian, Polish, Spanish and Italian).

You can also sign up for the newsletter of the Animal Transport Guidelines project.

 

Layers protected by lasers

Small scale, with an eye for tradition and with a holistic view on nature and farm life – surely this doesn’t make biodynamic agriculture as innovative as one might think. British-based layer farmer Hoeberichts will prove you wrong. He protects his free-range organic hens from avian influenza infection, coming from wild birds, by using laser
technology.

…
The laser (Agrilaser Autonomic) is silent and shows effectiveness of 90% to 100% in bird dispersal at farms, which the Dutch company says makes it a viable alternative to the expensive method of installing nets all around the entire poultry farm.
…
Read more (Article by Chris McCullough in Poultry World).