Intensive selection for growth in broilers has not altered normal feeding behaviour

Abstract

Selection for increased growth rate in livestock may be accompanied by increases in requirements for energy and nutrients. It has been suggested that intensively selected broilers have altered food intake control mechanisms and could be constantly hungry, due to their high resource demands (Bokkers et al. 2004), which would be a major welfare issue. Such alterations in food intake control mechanisms as a side-effect of genetic selection would lead to changes in the feeding behaviour of birds, such as the clustering of visits into meals and the probability of birds starting a new meal in relation to the time since the last meal. The aim of this study was to test whether broilers intensively selected for growth showed any alteration in the structure of their feeding behaviour that would indicate a change in the underlying hunger and satiety control mechanisms.