Background, Aims and Scope. Over the last five decades, the nature of food retailing has undergone an enormous transformation. Macro …
This overview analyses the key drivers of change in the global livestock sector and assesses how they are influencing current trends and future prospects in the world’s diverse livestock production systems and market chains; and what are their consequent impacts on the management of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture. The trends are occurring …
The measurement of farm animal well-being has evolved through several stages to return to the most agreed-upon system of evaluation that uses a multidisciplinary approach. The multidisciplinary approach includes measures of animal behavior, physiology, anatomy and health and immunity. However, the multidisciplinary approach must be used in the context of other important society issues including: …
Sustainability is the possibility of all people living rewarding lives within the means of nature. Despite ample recognition of the …
This paper examines the challenges that climate change raises for animal agriculture and discusses the contributions that may come from …
Nowadays many debates are going on that relate to the agricultural and food sector. It looks as if present technological …
Organic agriculture addresses the public demand to diminish environmental pollution of agricultural production. Until now, however, only few studies tried …
A variety of policy strategies have been proposed and argued as capable of delivering more sustainable food systems, and accompanying …
Procedures that increase the sustainability of agriculture often result in animals being treated more humanely: both livestock in animal and mixed farming and wildlife in arable farming. Equally, procedures ensuring humane treatment of farm animals often increase sustainability, for example in disease control and manure management. This overlap between sustainability and humaneness is not coincidental. …
This paper is the report of a meeting that gathered many of the UK’s most senior animal scientists with representatives of the farming industry, consumer groups, animal welfare groups, and environmentalists. There was strong consensus that the current economic structure of agriculture cannot adequately address major issues of concern to society: farm incomes, food security …
1. The effect of light intensity on social communication in laying hens was investigated experimentally by comparing the transmission and …
The provision for dustbathing material will be a legal requirement in cage-housing systems for laying hens within the European Union beginning in 2012. At present, food particles are widely used and typically offered in small amounts on Astroturf mats one or more times per day to facilitate dustbathing, pecking, and scratching. In the present study, …
Feather pecking (FP) is a major welfare problem in laying hens, influenced by multiple factors. FP is thought to be redirected foraging behaviour, however fearful birds are also known to be more sensitive to develop FP. The relationship between fear-responses, foraging and FP is not well understood, thereforewestudied the behaviour of 16 birds from a …
Farm-level factors that could be associated with feather pecking of layers kept in organic farming systems were monitored in 63 flocks from 26 farms located in different areas of The Netherlands. Data on housing and management practices were collected and plumage damage as a measure of feather pecking was scored at 50 weeks of age …
In this study, laying hen welfare is taken into account as part of an overall ‘egg safety and quality concept’. A holistic approach is adopted that encompasses the whole food chain in which responsibility for the production of safe and high quality eggs is shared along the entire food chain. Scientific data on egg quality …
1. The aim was to assess eggshell contamination in various laying hen-housing systems and to identify factors influencing this contamination. …
The production system using cages is a highly polemical issue in Europe, because of the space restriction imposed to laying …