Abstract
Every year, billions of egg layer chicks around the world are hatched under highly stressful, industrial circumstances. Here, it is investigated how the stressful procedure in the commercial hatchery, including incubation, hatching, processing, and transport affects the chicks with regards to traits relevant for the egg production industry. These traits were compared to those of a control group hatched in a small incubator and handled gently och quietly in a quiet room without any processing and transport. The chicks were weighed at hatch and at eight additional time points: 4 days, 1 week (w), 2 w, 3 w, 5 w, 8 w, 20 w and 25 w of age. Feather pecking was studied at 15 w of age and damages to the feathers and injuries on the comb and wattle were assessed at 25 w of age. From 19 w of age, eggs were collected on three days per week, counted and weighed. Chicks from a commercial hatchery had a lower hatch weight than control chicks (p<0.001). At 20 w of age, the weight of the commercial hatched chicks was still numerically lower, although this did not reach statistical significance. Commercially hatched chicks tended to show more feather pecking behaviour at 15 w of age compared to control chicks (p<0.1), although feather condition at 25 w of age showed the opposite pattern. Regarding production, commercially hatched chickens laid fewer (p<0.05) and smaller (p<0.05) eggs than chicks hatched and handled under calm circumstances. From this experiment, it is concluded that the stressful experience in the commercial hatchery has an overall negative effect on traits relevant for the industry.
Highlights
Every year, billions of egg layer chicks around the world are hatched under industrial circumstances [1]
It was shown that chickens that were exposed to incubation, hatching and handling in a commercial hatchery weighed less after hatch and tended to do so at eight weeks of age following a transport and change of environment
It was previously shown that chicks from a commercial hatchery have an elevated level of CORT at hatch as well as after the hatchery procedure [3]
Summary
Billions of egg layer chicks around the world are hatched under industrial circumstances [1]. The hatchery procedure is highly standardized and does not differ considerably between countries [2]. Upon arrival to the hatchery, the eggs are inserted in large scale incubators (each containing tens of thousands of eggs) and are incubated in darkness with highly controlled temperature and humidity. The noise level in the incubators is about 90 dB (caused mainly by fans) and during the last 3 days of incubation, the chicks are often exposed to formalin fumigation. Chicks hatch on average at day 21 of incubation but are routinely kept in the incubator another day to allow for late hatchers.
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