Humane care is best defined as maintaining husbandry procedures in keeping with the traits which are species-specific to the animal farmed. It must be evaluated in relation to the ethogram of the species, and not to anthropomorphic human feelings about animal care. If humane care is pursued, some compatability may be found between what the …
Newly hatched chicks are routinely subjected to varying durations of transport shortly after hatching. Because little is known about the effects of this putative stressor on behavioural development, the present experiment tested for the effects of a simulated long transport-like treatment during the first day of life in two strains of laying hen chicks on …
1. Contaminated chicken meat remains an internationally important vehicle for human infection with Salmonella and Campylobacter spp. In addition, the last 20 years has seen an international pandemic of human salmonellosis caused by the contamination of eggs with Salmonella Enteritidis. 2. It has been a long held scientific view that Campylobacter spp. and most, if …
Reports and guidelines produced by international institutions such as the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE, 2005) describe various methods of killing nonhuman animals. Selection and implementation of a killing method may involve several factors. Preventing or minimizing risk to human health and safety may override animal welfare concerns if the disease has the potential …
Discoveries in behavior and welfare science have improved the health and well-being of egg laying flocks of chickens. The objectives of this review are to highlight research findings in genetics, health, environment, molting, morphological alterations, euthanasia, handling during depopulation, transportation, and harvesting to improve poultry welfare and to provide examples of additional opportunities to continue …
When hens kept for commercial egg production reach the end of their economically viable life span, they are usually transported to a processing plant for conversion into meat products. In this article, we review methods used in Canada and the United States for the catching and removing of these “spent” hens from the layer house …
There have been two excellent reviews recently on concussion stunning and electrical stunning (Schutt-Abraham, 1999; Shaw, 2002). The focus in this paper is on recent information not covered in those reviews, and on aspects of stunning and slaughter that are likely to become more important in the next five to ten years. The topics that …
This review starts with a brief outline of poultry behaviour and biology and a description of the present laying hen farming situation in Italy. Moreover, it points out the situation of EU legislation currently in effect for laying hen welfare. It then reviews the main welfare issues of layer farming. The following aspects are considered: …
FAWC updates the five freedoms
The welfare of laying hens is one of the old topics which features regularly in discussions on European animal welfare regulations. The texts adopted are a compromise between scientific arguments based on biological data, and economical and geopolitical factors. Laying hens are a textbook example, as none of the systems recommended by current national and …
The main advantages of battery cages for laying hens over alternative husbandry systems are (1) increased hygiene resulting in a much lower incidence of diseases in which the infectious agent is spread through the droppings, (2) small group size resulting in a low incidence of social friction, (3) ease of management, (4) absence of litter …
Many of the conditions in which poultry live and the procedures to which they are subjected compromise their welfare. This article describes these welfare problems in the hope that they may serve as warnings to the rest of animal agriculture, which then might take steps to avoid the same pitfalls. The article discusses poultry welfare …
Approximately 40 million layer hens are slaughtered in Britain every year. The majority come from battery cage units and are culled towards the end of their laying period when they are usually between 72 and 76 weeks old. Meat from these birds is one of the cheapest sources of edible animal protein, but suffers from …
Killing poultry by means of whole house gassing with carbon dioxide (CO2) is an important tool in disease control. The behaviour of ducks, broilers, laying hens and turkeys was observed to assess differences in susceptibility between species and to assess animal welfare implications following exposure to CO2 treatment. All birds were individually exposed to CO2 …
Like many industries today, the poultry industry faces the challenge of producing high quality products in a manner which meets …
The land transport of animals can have 3 types of influence on their welfare. First, the handling, loading, and novelty of the transport environment and experience can induce a psychological stress response in animals. Second, the withdrawal of feed and water and the need to stand and maintain balance for transport periods can cause a …
Commencing in 2007, a collaborative project to develop the ’’National Animal Welfare Standards for the Livestock Transport Industry’’ (the Standards) was completed and the documentation was integrated with the existing industry quality assurance (QA) program, TruckCare. The project was the fifth in a series of 6 projects commencing from 1998, to develop industry-wide animal welfare …