Simulation of maternal care to improve welfare in chickens

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

For a domestic chick, the mother hen is an important role model; chicks learn a great deal from their mother about what to peck, when to rest and how to behave when there is a threat. However, in large farms, allowing hens to rear their own chicks is not commercially viable and in the UK last year, around 900 million domestic chicks were hatched in large incubators and reared artificially, without a mother hen. Chicks reared without a mother in this way are more fearful and more likely to develop behavioural problems, such as pecking the feathers and skin of other chickens; a highly prevalent and serious welfare concern. Since natural brooding is not an option on commercial farms, the aim of this project is to artificially simulate a number of important features of maternal care that result in healthy, less fearful, higher welfare chickens. For example, one method of simulating the mother's role in directing chick pecking activity might be to play recordings of maternal feeding calls near to feeders, to encourage the chicks to peck at food rather than the feathers of their brood mates. To develop these artificial simulations of maternal care, I will first observe how effective mother hens behave by identifying features of maternal care that result in less fearful, higher welfare chicks. After pinpointing the most effective features, small scale studies with non-brooded chicks will allow me to assess whether artificial simulation of these features is feasible and effective in improving chick welfare. Finally, candidate artificial features of maternal care will then be rolled out onto commercial laying hen farms to determine whether the welfare benefits can be replicated on a large scale and persist until the end of the production period. This project will not only provide fundamental new insight into avian maternal behaviour, but will result in practical and effective animal welfare solutions; a strategic priority for BBSRC.