Abstract
ABSTRACT Among the several factors required in breeding laying hens, debeaking is a factor that interferes with batch performance and affects animal welfare. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate three different debeaking procedures and to verify the best technique to be used. For this, the performance of the birds, the incidence of cannibalism, and in rearing phase, the quality of the eggs were evaluated. Dekalb White birds were distributed in a completely randomized design with three treatments, T1 (infrared radiation debeaking) T2 (hot blade debeaking) and T3 (V debeaking).The data was submitted to Analysis of Variance and compared by Tukey’s test (95%), using statistical software R. The frequencies of mortality and cannibalism were submitted to the Chi-Square test (Software R). It was observed that mortality was lower with IR debeaking in the breeding phase. Already in the rearing phase, the mortality was similar between the debeaking techniques and the cannibalism was null. The final mean weight (g), mean weight gain (g) and average daily weight gain in the rearing and egg quality variables were higher for V debeaking when compared to other techniques. It is concluded that V-debeaking provides better bird performance, resistance and shell thickness when compared to the infrared radiations and hot blade debeaking, in addition to subjecting the birds to less stress.
Highlights
The egg production industry is under intense pressure to eliminate the deboning technique due to the procedure causing acute and chronic pain in the birds
The results referring to the zootechnical performance and the frequency of mortality of the breeding and rearing phases are presented in Tables 1 to 3, respectively
The single debeaking performed adequately at 8 to 10 days, shows good results and shows low rates of neuromas and deformities in the beak as was verified in the present experiment. These results show that the second debeaking performed for Infrared Radiation (IR) and Hot Blade (HB) affected the performance of the birds
Summary
The egg production industry is under intense pressure to eliminate the deboning technique due to the procedure causing acute and chronic pain in the birds. Elimination of the procedure may negatively impact animal welfare, resulting in an increase in the incidence of aggressive behavior by birds (Guesdon et al, 2007; Denis & Cheng, 2010; Angevaare et al, 2012) depending on the type of installations and genetics used in breeding. This scenario makes the deboning process a routine and necessary procedure in the egg industry. The technique consists of partial amputation of the upper and lower part of the beak (Denis et al, 2009) It is used in commercial poultry farms, broilers matrices, ducks and turkeys. Recommendations on the procedure are available in the literature, but there is no standardization of sizes for poultry beaks (Pizzolante et al, 2007)
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