New products that are based on higher animal welfare standards encounter several barriers on the road to market acceptance. The authors focus on the Dutch poultry sector and distinguish between retailer and consumer barriers. Retailers barriers include the powerful position of retailers, the price competition, and the price-orienatation of decision makers. At the consumer level …
The production of food from consumption produces enviromental stress and raises ethical issues. As humans are able to choose differnet food stuffs in their diets food consumption guidance may have large benefits for the enviroment. Meat consumption id often identified as the most enviromentally harmful foodstuff to produce and animal welfare and rights issues are …
Upcoming nesting behaviour traits, such as the exact oviposition time or the time spent in the nest, have a direct impact on economically relevant aspects. Hens which stay for a long time in the nest box, require more nest capacity which result in the higher investments for the farmer. This is simialr to flocks in …
Many animals produce alarm calls that warn conspecifics about predators. In some species, alarm calls communicate continuous traits associated with …
Pictures from the activities held in St. Louis, USA by Novus.
Slurry, farmyard manure and poultry manure are inevitable consequences of livestock prodects generated from housed animals. These manures are recycled …
The performances of adult laying hens, housed in either a basic or an enriched pen, were investigated in a cognitive bias and an anticipation test. Both tests were designed to measure the assumed emotional state of the birds. The behaviour of birds in each test was compared to see whether both tests provided similar evidence …
Egg producers in the EU had more than a decade to adapt to Directive 1999/74/ EC which prohibits keeping laying hens in battery cages after 2012. Meanwhile, numerous studies have been conducted in order to assess the socio-economic implications of this ban and to evaluate consumers’ willingness to support improvement in layer welfare by paying …
The quality of day-old chick placement and management upon arrival have a major impact on first-week mortality (FWM) and subsequent welfare in layers. The present study investigated FWM and causes of FWM in 50 flocks of layers. Post mortem results from 983 chickens showed that 50% died from infections, whereas non infectious causes, in particular …
Redirected behaviors occur when some course of action is thwarted or inhibited (frustration). They also occur as adjunctive behaviors in operant conditioning tasks, where they might reflect frustration about unrewarded responses. Because frustration is associated with stress, which could interfere with learning and memory, we studied whether the occurrence of redirected behavior is correlated with …
This study reviews all attributes of feed-food competition and enforced-demands of food of animal origin with the aim of delivering …
This paper covers the domestication and distribution of chickens in different parts of the world and describes the global data …
The average mortality for end of lay hens dead on arrival (DOA) was 0.27 per cent (median 0.15 per cent) in a survey of 13.3 million hens transported during 2009. A statistical model of the data indicated main risk factors for DOA to be slaughter plant, distance travelled and external air temperature, with longer journeys …
Appropriate emergency disaster preparedness is a key priority for agricultural agencies to allow effective response to serious avian disease outbreaks. There is a need to develop rapid, humane, and safe depopulation techniques for poultry that are widely applicable across a range of farm settings. Whole barn depopulation with carbon dioxide (CO2) has been investigated as …
1. Poultry on farms are sometimes required to be killed in an emergency, such as during a disease epidemic, yet none of the available methods are ideal. Whole-house carbon dioxide (CO2) administration has practical advantages, but gives rise to welfare concerns. 2. The study measured the body temperature, respiration, cardiac and brain activity (EEG) responses …
In total, 432 thirty-six-week-old laying hens were fed a basal diet supplemented with mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) or an essential oil mixture …
The attributes of egg production that elicitvalues-based responses include the price and availability of eggs, environmental impacts, food safety or health concerns, and animal welfare. Different social groups have distinct interests regarding the sustainability of egg production that reflect these diverse values. Current scientifically based knowledge about how values and attitudes in these groups can …
Setting directions and goals for animal production systems requires the integration of information achieved through internal and external processes. The …