Small Furnished Cages Research Articles

Effect of Battery and Furnished Cages on Blood Viscosity and Erythrocyte Osmotic Stability of Laying Hens

As a result of animal welfare issues, the use of furnished cages has been proposed. Blood viscosity and osmotic stability can be used as an indication of oxidative stress. There has, however, not been any study investigating the blood viscosity and erythrocyte osmotic stability of laying hens reared in battery and furnished cages, hence the reason for this experiment. 790 laying hens were reared in large and small furnished cages and battery cages between 14 and 60 weeks. The whole blood viscosity and erythrocyte osmotic stability were determined at the end of the experiment. The study showed that there was no significant difference in the whole blood viscosity of laying hens reared in the three cage types, while hens reared in battery cages had the highest number of stable red blood cells. This could be an indication that the stress level in the three cages is similar, while birds are more osmotically stable in the battery cages.

PSXIII-5 Effects of Stocking Density on the Welfare and Immune Responses of Laying Hens Housed in Small Furnished Cages

Abstract To investigate the effects of stocking density on the welfare and immune responses of laying hens housed in furnished cages, 192 Hy-Line Brown hens were housed in small furnished cages and randomly divided into three groups on their 18 weeks old for low-density group (833 cm2 per hen, LD), medium-density group (625 cm2 per hen, MD), and high-density group (500 cm2 per hen, HD). There are eight cages in each stocking density. The welfare of laying hens was assessed at 22, 42 and 72 weeks of age (WOA) for feather quality, foot cleanness, footpad dermatitis, hyperkeratosis and keel bone damage. After the last welfare assessment, venous blood from the wing of the hen was extracted for testing immune indicators of Immunoglobulin Y (Ig Y), Interferon gamma (IFN-γ), Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), Interleukin-2 (IL-2), Interleukin-4 (IL-4), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Interleukin-12 (IL-12) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results showed that feather quality of laying hens from HD group was worse than hens from LD and MD groups at 42 and 62 WOA (P < 0.05). The foot cleanness score of hens from HD group was worse than other two group hens at 62 WOA (P < 0.05), respectively. There was no significant difference between three groups on other welfare indicators (P > 0.05), but the welfare quality of laying hens got worse with the aging of laying hens. Laying hens from LD group had greater concentrations of serum IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-6 compared with hens from MD and HD groups (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference for other immune responses (P > 0.05). These findings suggest that keeping a high stocking density of laying hens could cause feather damage, impact the welfare quality and reduce the immune responses of laying hens housed in small furnished cages.

PSV-2 A simple study of the social rank and perch competition of laying hens housed in small furnished cages

Abstract Social animals form social hierarchies to maintain the relative stability of the population. Individuals with high social rank can, to some extent, limit the priority of individuals with lower social status to obtain resources, such as food, habitat and spouse. The perch behavior is the instinctive behavior of laying hens. Hens have the motivation to choose perch habitat. Therefore, perch is an effective competitive resource for laying hens. The objective of this study was to examine the social order of small groups of the laying hens housed in furnished cages and to determine the dominant and subordinate hens how to use the limited perch resources. A total of 108 Hy-line Brown rearing hens at 8 weeks of age were randomly divided into three treatment groups, namely, 1) perch increasing group by adding 15cm each time from 0 to 90 cm length (PI group), 2) perch decreasing group by cutting 15cm each time from 90 to 0 cm length (PD group) and 3) perch constant with 90 cm (PC group). There were 6 replicates in each treatment group, 6 birds in each replicate, and the stocking density was 833/cm2. The utilization of limited resources in laying hens was judged by three parameters, i.e. the number of individual occupancies, total use time and single use time. Data were analyzed by using repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that the number of occupancies and the total use time of perch by the dominant hens were significantly higher than the subordinate ones (P < 0.01) in PI, PD and PC groups. The number of individual perch occupancy was positively correlated with the social rank of the hens. This study confirmed that the dominant hens occupied the perch for longer time than the subordinate individuals.

Welfare of layers housed in small furnished cages on Danish commercial farms: the condition of keel bone, feet, plumage and skin

ABSTRACT1. An on-farm assessment of keel bone, feet, plumage and skin damage was conducted in layers in small furnished cages to evaluate welfare implications.2. Thirteen farms participated, all housing Lohmann LSL layers in systems allowing 8 or 10 hens per cage.3. Each flock was visited at three different ages: 32, 62 and 77 weeks. During each visit, 100 hens were examined for keel bone fractures and deviations, plumage damage, body wounds, foot pad lesions, bumble feet, missing toes and toe wounds.4. A deterioration with age of the condition of the plumage and keel bone was found (P < 0.001). At 77 weeks of age, 16% of the birds had poor plumage, and 43% of the birds had keel bone damage. In contrast, foot pad lesions were most prevalent at 32 weeks of age (13%), whereas the other foot injuries and body wounds remained at a relatively low level throughout the three ages examined.5. Prevention of damage to the keel bone, plumage and foot pads should therefore be considered when aiming to improve welfare of laying hens housed in small furnished cages.

The effect of space allowance and cage size on laying hens housed in furnished cages, Part II: Behavior at the feeder

Standards for feeder (a.k.a. feed trough) space allowance (SA) are based primarily on studies in conventional cages where laying hens tend to eat simultaneously, limiting feeder space. Large furnished cages (FC) offer more total space and opportunities to perform a greater variety of behaviors, which may affect feeding behavior and feeder space requirements. Our objective was to determine the effects of floor/feeder SA on behavior at the feeder. LSL-Lite hens were housed in FC equipped with a nest, perches, and a scratch mat. Hens with SA of either 520 cm2 (Low; 8.9 cm feeder space/hen) or 748 cm2 (High; 12.8 cm feeder space/hen) per bird resulted in groups of 40 vs. 28 birds in small FC (SFC) and 80 vs. 55 in large FC (LFC). Chain feeders ran at 0500, 0800, 1100, 1400, and 1700 with lights on at 0500 and off at 1900 hours. Digital recordings of FC were scanned at chain feeder onset and every 15 min for one h after (5 scans × 5 feeding times × 2 d) to count the number of birds with their head in the feeder. All occurrences of aggressive pecks and displacements during 2 continuous 30-minute observations at 0800 h and 1700 h also were counted. Mixed model repeated analyses tested the effects of SA, cage size, and time on the percent of hens feeding, and the frequency of aggressive pecks and displacements. Surprisingly, the percent of birds feeding simultaneously was similar regardless of cage size (LFC: 23.0 ± 0.9%; SFC: 24.0 ± 1.0%; P = 0.44) or SA (Low: 23.8 ± 0.9%; High: 23.3 ± 1.0%; P = 0.62). More birds were observed feeding at 1700 h (35.3 ± 0.1%) than any at other time (P < 0.001). Feeder use differed by cage area (nest, middle, or scratch) over the d (P < 0.001). The frequency of aggressive pecks was low overall and not affected by SA or cage size. Frequency of displacements was also low but greater at Low SA (P = 0.001). There was little evidence of feeder competition at the Low SA in this study.

Effect of space allowance and cage size on laying hens housed in furnished cages, Part I: Performance and well-being

There are few published data on the effects of housing laying hens at different densities in large furnished cages (FC; a.k.a. enriched colony cages). The objective of this study was to determine the effects of housing laying hens at 2 space allowances (SA) in 2 sizes of FC on measures of production and well-being. At 18 wk of age, 1,218 LSL-Lite hens were housed in cages furnished with a curtained nesting area, perches, and scratch mat, and stocked at either 520 cm2 (Low) or 748 cm2 (High) total floor space. This resulted in 4 group sizes: 40 vs. 28 birds in smaller FC (SFC) and 80 vs. 55 in larger FC (LFC). Data were collected from 20 to 72 wks of age. There was no effect of cage size (P = 0.21) or SA (P = 0.37) on hen day egg production, egg weight (PSize = 0.90; PSA = 0.73), or eggshell deformation (PSize = 0.14; PSA = 0.053), but feed disappearance was higher in SFC than LFC (P = 0.005). Mortality to 72 wk was not affected by cage size (P = 0.78) or SA (P = 0.55). BW (P = 0.006) and BW CV (P = 0.008) increased with age but were not affected by treatment. Feather cleanliness was poorer in FC with low SA vs. high (P < 0.0001) and small vs. large FC (P < 0.0001). Feather condition was poorer in low SA (P = 0.048) and the best in small cages with high SA (P = 0.006), but deteriorated in all treatments over time (P < 0.0001). Treatments did not affect the breaking strengths of femur, tibia, or humerus, proportions of birds suffering keel deformations, or foot health scores. Overall, the SA studied in the 2 cage sizes in this trial had few effects on production parameters. However, stocking birds at the lower space allowance resulted in some measures of poorer external condition in both sizes of FC, which indicates that the welfare of hens housed at the lower space allowance may be compromised according to some welfare assessment criteria.

Exterior egg quality as affected by enrichment resources layout in furnished laying-hen cages.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the effects of enrichment resources (a perch, dustbath, and nest) layout in furnished laying-hen cages (FC) on exterior quality of eggs.MethodsOne hundred and sixty-eight (168) Hy-Line Brown laying hens at 16 weeks of age were randomly distributed to four treatments: small furnished cages (SFC), medium furnished cages type I (MFC-I), medium furnished cages type II (MFC-II), and medium furnished cages type III (MFC-III). Each treatment had 4 replicates or cages with 6 hens for SFC (24 birds for each SFC) and 12 hen/cage for MFC-I, -II, and -III (48 birds for each MFC-I, -II and -III). Following a 2-week acclimation, data collection started at 18 weeks of age and continued till 52 weeks of age. Dirtiness of egg surface or cracked shell as indicators of the exterior egg quality were recorded each week.ResultsThe results showed that the proportion of cracked or dirty eggs was significantly affected by the FC type (p<0.01) in that the highest proportion of cracked or dirty eggs was found in MFC-I and the lowest proportion of dirty eggs in SFC. The results of this showed that furnished cage types affected both dirty eggs and cracked eggs (p<0.01). The results also indicated that not nest but dustbath lead to more dirty eggs. Only MFC-I had higher dirty eggs at nest than other FC (p< 0.01). The results of dirty eggs in MFC-I and MFC-II compared with SFC and MFC-III seemed suggest that a low position of dustbath led to more dirty eggs.ConclusionSFC design affected exterior egg quality and the low position of dustbath in FC resulted in higher proportion of dirty eggs.

The effect of large or small furnished cages on behaviors and tibia bone of laying hens

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the effects of large furnished cages (LFCs) or small furnished cages (SFCs) on behavior and tibia bone of laying hens. Three hundred and sixty Hyline brown hens at 16 weeks of age were allocated into 3 treatments with 6 replicates: LFCs, SFCs, and conventional cages (CCs). The experiment was started at 18 weeks of age and finished at 34 weeks of age. The behaviors of focal animals were observed during 3 periods of 08:00-10:00, 13:00-14:00, and 16:00-17:00 on Wednesday in 20th, 24th, 28th, and 32nd week of age. Tibia bones were sampled and measured for tibia weight, length, density, and strength were measured. The results showed that walking behavior of LFC hens was significantly higher ( P P P P P P = 0.20). Tibia strength of the hens in LFC and SFC was significantly greater than CC ( P P P = 0.53 and P = 0.33). The use of perches by the LFC hens was significantly higher than for the SFC hens ( P

Effects of Furnished Cage Type on Behavior and Welfare of Laying Hens.

This study was conducted to compare the effects of layout of furniture (a perch, nest, and sandbox) in cages on behavior and welfare of hens. Two hundred and sixteen Hyline Brown laying hens were divided into five groups (treatments) with four replicates per group: small furnished cages (SFC), medium furnished cages type I (MFC-I), medium furnished cages type II (MFC-II), and medium furnished cages type III (MFC-III) and conventional cages (CC). The experiment started at 18 week of age and finished at 52 week of age. Hens’ behaviors were filmed during the following periods: 8:00 to 10:00; 13:00 to 14:00; 16:00 to 17:00 on three separate days and two hens from each cage were measured for welfare parameters at 50 wk of age. The results showed that feeding and laying of all hens showed no effect by cage type (p>0.05), and the hens in the furnished cages had significantly lower standing and higher walking than CC hens (p<0.05). The birds in MFC-III had significant higher preening, scratching and feather-pecking behavior than in the other cages (p<0.05). No difference in nesting behavior was found in the hens between the furnished cages (p>0.05). The hens in MFC-I, −II, and −III showed a significant higher socializing behavior than SFC and CC (p<0.05). The lowest perching was for the hens in SFC and the highest perching found for the hens in MFC-III. Overall, the hens in CC showed poorer welfare conditions than the furnished cages, in which the feather condition score, gait score and tonic immobility duration of the hens in CC was significantly higher than SFC, MFC-I, MFC-II, and MFC-III (p<0.05). In conclusion, the furnished cage design affected both behavior and welfare states of hens. Overall, MFC-III cage design was better than SFC, MFC-I, and MFC-II cage designs.

Effects of large or small furnished cages on performance, welfare and egg quality of laying hens

The study investigated the effects of large or small furnished cages on laying hens. Hyline brown hens (n = 360) were placed into three treatments with six replicates: large furnished cages (LFC), small furnished cages (SFC), and conventional cages (CC). The results showed that egg production of hens in the LFC treatment was significantly lower (P &lt; 0.05) than that in SFC and CC groups. Daily feed intake, feed : egg ratio, egg weight, and proportion of broken eggs and dirty eggs were not affected by cage types. However, Haugh unit and albumen height of the eggs from LFC and SFC hens were significantly higher (P &lt; 0.01) than those from the CC hens. Welfare indicators (feather conditions, gait score, and fluctuating asymmetry of tibia length or wing length) in LFC and SFC hens were much better than in CC hens (P &lt; 0.05). In conclusion, the hens in the LFC treatment had lower productivity, higher egg quality and better welfare conditions than those in the SFC and CC treatments.

Investigating discrepancies in heat, CO2 fluxes and O3 deposition velocity over maize as measured by the eddy-covariance and the aerodynamic gradient methods

The eddy covariance (EC) method is widely considered as the reference method for heat and trace gas exchange flux measurements. However, for some species of interest, the aerodynamic gradient method (AG) is still a valuable method. Furthermore, some useful datasets are based on the AG method. In this study we compare the EC and the AG methods for latent (LE) and sensible (H) heat, carbon dioxide (Fc) fluxes and ozone deposition velocity (Vd O3) over a maize field near Paris. The AG method gave roughly 15% smaller Fc and LE, similar H, and 40% larger Vd O3 than the EC method. The differences between the two methods are discussed. In particular, the effects of the displacement height and heights of measurements on the AG fluxes are explored and the similarity among heat, CO2, H2O and O3 is tested. Furthermore, the vertical divergence of the flux above the canopy is estimated with the AG method.

Relation between social order and use of resources in small and large furnished cages for laying hens

1. The objective was to determine the relation between social rank and use of resources in a small furnished cage with sufficient resources per hen (SF) and a commercial large one with less adequate allowance of facilities per hen (LF). 2. Ninety-two cross layers were used. At the age of 16 weeks, the hens were divided at random into two groups. There were 4 furnished cages with 5 birds per cage and 4 large furnished cages with 18 birds per cage. The dominance hierarchy was determined, in which highest, medium and lowest ranking hens in each cage were identified. Behaviour, use of facilities and physical conditions of these hens were measured (one in each rank category in SF, two in each in LF). 3. Dustbathing and litter scratching were more frequent in the high ranking hens than the medium and low ranked hens in LF, while no significant difference was found between them in SF. 4. No significant difference between SF and LF was found in use of nest boxes. However, pre-laying sitting tended to be less frequent in low ranking than medium and high ranking hens in LF (Social order × Cage design). In the nest box most of time was spent in pre-laying sitting by SF hens, LF high and medium ranked hens (average 94·9%). However, LF low ranking hens spent their time escaping (33·1%), pre-laying sitting (27·7%) standing (25·7%) and moving (13·5%) in the nest. 5. In the large furnished cages with less facilities per hen, high ranking hens may be expected to have priority using the dust bath. In contrast, low ranking hens rarely performed nesting behaviour fully, and spend more time using the nest box as a refuge than for laying.

Effects of separation of resources on behaviour of high-, medium- and low-ranked hens in furnished cages

In our previous studies, we demonstrated that dominant hens had priority in using the dust bath, resulted in increased competition for the resource. It seemed that the problem was that the resource was placed on one side of the cage (‘localised’). Therefore, we designed a medium-sized furnished cage with a dust bath and nest box on both sides of the cage (‘separated’, MFS). To evaluate the effects of separation of these resources, we compared the behaviour of high-, medium- and low-ranked hens in MFS cage with that in small (SF) and medium furnished (MFL) cages with a localised resource. In total, 150 White Leghorn layers were used. At the age of 17 weeks, the hens were randomly divided into three groups and moved to small furnished cages (SF, 90 cm wide; five birds per cage) and two types of medium furnished cages (180 cm wide; 10 birds per cage) with a nest box and dust bath on both sides (MFS) and a nest box and dust bath on one side of the cage (MFL). The total dust bath and nest box areas per hen were same for the three cages. The dominance hierarchy was determined by observing the aggressive interactions and by this high-, medium- and low-ranked hens in each cage were identified. The behaviour, use of facilities and physical condition of these hens were measured. Data were analysed by using repeated measure ANOVA. A significant interaction between social order and cage design was found in the proportions of time spent in the dust bath and on performing dust-bathing (both P < 0.001), and these proportions tended to be higher in higher-ranked hens in SF and MFL. Conversely, the MFS low-ranked hens tended to use the dust bath more than the SF and MFL low-ranked hens. Thus, hens from each rank used the dust bath equally in MFS, though the MFS high-ranked hens tended to use the resource less than the SF and MFL high-ranked hens. While the frequency of pre-laying sitting was lower among low-ranked hens ( P < 0.05), the proportion of time in the nest box was higher among low- than high-ranked hens ( P < 0.01). The low-ranked hens spent more time performing escaping, moving and standing in the nest box. In conclusion, it is suggested that separation of the dust bath to two locations would be an effective arrangement to promote more equal usage of the dust bath by hens from each rank in the furnished cages. It was also confirmed in the present study that nest boxes were not only used for laying eggs but also as a refuge by lower ranked hens.

Behavior, performance and physical condition of laying hens in conventional and small furnished cages

ABSTRACTThe aim of the present study was to compare the welfare level and performance of laying hens between conventional and small furnished cages. At the age of 54 weeks, 120 White Leghorn layers were divided into four groups: four (C4) or six hens/cage in conventional cages and four or six (F6) hens/cage in furnished cages. Their behavior, number of steps taken, performance and physical condition were measured. Sham dust‐bathing was greater in conventional cages than in furnished cages (P = 0.05) and dust‐bathing, litter scratching and litter pecking were also observed in furnished cages. Other comfort behavior, moving and number of steps taken were more frequent in the four‐hen cages than in the six‐hen cages (P &lt; 0.01, P &lt; 0.001, P &lt; 0.001, respectively). Though egg production and egg mass in C4 and F6 were lower than in the other groups, no significant differences were found in the other production measurements. Bodyweight gain was larger in the four‐hen cages than the six‐hen cages (P &lt; 0.01). In conclusion, behavior was not restricted in the furnished cages, but activity and bodyweight gain were affected by group size (density) rather than cage design. Hereafter, the studies on suitable density in each cage design, using young layers, are required.