Effects of breed and early feeding on intestinal microbiota, inflammation markers, and behavior of broiler chickens.

Recently, the Netherlands has shifted toward more welfare-friendly broiler production systems using slower-growing broiler breeds. Early post-hatch feeding (EF) is a dietary strategy that is currently used in commercial broiler production to modulate the gut microbiota and improve performance and welfare. However, there is a knowledge gap in how both breed and EF and their interplay affect gut microbiota composition and diversity, inflammatory status, and broiler behavior.

Early behavioral indicators of aberrant feces in newly-weaned piglets.

Background: Post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) is a frequently occurring health and welfare issue in weaned piglets. Behavioral changes indicating impaired health may be detectable before the onset of signs and could be useful to detect the development of PWD early, enabling targeted and timely interventions. Current algorithms enable automated behavioral classification on the group level, while PWD may not affect all piglets in one pen and individual level analysis may be required.

Diet-induced changes in the jejunal microbiota of developing broilers reduce the abundance of Enterococcus hirae and Enterococcus faecium.

Modern broiler breeds allow for high feed efficiency and rapid growth, which come at a cost of increased susceptibility to pathogens and disease. Broiler growth rate, feed efficiency, and health are affected by the composition of the gut microbiota, which in turn is influenced by diet. In this study, we therefore assessed how diet composition can affect the broiler jejunal gut microbiota.

Research Note: Effects of high barn temperature on group-level dispersion and individual activity in broiler chickens.

Heat stress in broilers is a pressing issue in the changing climate. Data on broiler behavior might be useful for early detection of heat stress and subsequent intervention, and may provide potential indicators for heat tolerance that can be used in broiler breeding programs. Here, we used bird location data collected in a previous study during which broilers were inadvertently exposed to high ambient temperatures due to a local heat wave.

Dietary strategies can increase cloacal endotoxin levels and modulate the resident microbiota in broiler chickens.

Endotoxins released from poultry feces have been associated with impaired human health. Because endotoxins are released from gram-negative intestinal bacteria, it was hypothesized that dietary strategies may influence endotoxin excretion via modulation of gut microbiota. We therefore tested dietary strategies that could potentially reduce cloacal endotoxin levels in broiler chickens.

Group level and individual activity of broiler chickens hatched in 3 different systems.

Information on the behavior of chickens hatched in different systems is limited and inconsistent across different studies. Changes in broiler activity can be measured automatically and continuously. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of 3 hatching systems on flock activity using a commercial tracking system, and to compare these findings to individual activity measured under experimental conditions.

Fast- and slower-growing broilers respond similarly to a reduction in stocking density with regard to gait, hock burn, skin lesions, cleanliness, and performance.

There is an increasing trend toward broiler production systems with higher welfare requirements. Breed and stocking density are considered key factors for broiler welfare that are often specified as criteria for such higher welfare systems. However, it remains unknown how slower-growing broilers respond to a reduction in stocking density with regard to their welfare and performance, and whether this response differs from fast-growing broilers.

Effects of hatching system on chick quality, welfare and health of young breeder flock offspring.

Alternative hatching systems have been developed for broiler chickens to provide immediately feed and water after hatch and reduce the number or severity of early life stressors. Besides beneficial effects of these alternative hatching systems on chick quality and performance, broiler health and welfare may be positively affected as well. Especially offspring from young broiler breeder flocks may benefit, as they have been shown to be more sensitive to preturbations than offspring from older breeder flocks.

Linking key husbandry factors to the intrinsic quality of broiler meat.

Broiler farming is the fastest-growing animal production sector and broiler meat is the second most-consumed meat in the world. The intensification of broiler production often has a negative impact on the meat quality and carcass characteristics. Consumers, however, expect a quality product from animals reared extensively on farms providing good animal welfare, often intuitively associated with extensive farming practices.

Early life environment affects behavior, welfare, gut microbiome composition, and diversity in broiler chickens.

This study aimed to identify whether early-life conditions in broiler chickens could affect their behavior and welfare, and whether or not this was associated with an altered gut microbiome composition or diversity. Broilers were tested in a 2 x 2 factorial design with hatching conditions [home pen (OH) or at the hatchery (HH)] and enrichment (dark brooder (EE) or no brooder (NE) until 14 days of age) as factors ( = 6 per treatment combination). Microbiota composition was measured in the jejunum on days (d) 7, 14, and 35 and in pooled fecal samples on day 14.

Providing organic macro minerals and an elevated platform improved tibia characteristics, and increased locomotion and performance of fast- and slower-growing broilers.

Improving leg health will support broiler health and welfare. Known factors to improve leg health are: replacing inorganic by organic macro minerals in the diet, providing environmental enrichments and using slower-growing broilers. However, it remains unknown how fast- and slower-growing broilers respond to a combination of providing organic macro minerals and an elevated platform as enrichment with regard to leg health.

Differences and variation in welfare performance of broiler flocks in three production systems.

There is a trend toward broiler production systems with higher welfare requirements, that use slower growing broiler strains, apply a reduced stocking density and provide environmental enrichment. Although these separate factors each contribute to increased broiler welfare, there is little information on their combined effect on broiler welfare under commercial conditions, and on the variation in welfare performance of flocks within production systems. The aim of this study was to compare the welfare performance and the between-flock variation in welfare of 3 Dutch commercial broiler production systems differing in welfare requirements: Conventional (C), Dutch Retail Broiler (DRB) and Better Life one star (BLS).

Market driven initiatives can improve broiler welfare - a comparison across five European countries based on the Benchmark method.

Two kinds of initiatives exist to ensure welfare in broiler production: welfare legislation, where all broiler production in a country or region must comply with legally defined welfare standards; and market driven initiatives, where part of the production must meet specific welfare standards and is sold with a particular label, typically at a price premium, or as part of minimum welfare standards defined by a retailer, a fast-food chain or the like. While the effects of national legislation may be undermined by price competition from lower welfare imported products, the effects of market driven initiatives may be limited by lack of willingness from consumers to pay the extra cost. To investigate how this works out in practice, we compared broiler welfare requirements in 5 European countries, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Sweden, in 2018, by means of the Benchmark method.

Effects of pen enrichment on leg health of fast and slower-growing broiler chickens.

Pen enrichment for broiler chickens is one of the potential strategies to stimulate locomotion and consequently contribute to better leg health and welfare. This study was designed to evaluate effects of using a plethora of pen enrichments (barrier perches, angular ramps, horizontal platforms, large distance between feed and water and providing live Black Soldier fly larvae in a dustbathing area) on tibia characteristics, locomotion, leg health and home pen behaviour of fast and slower-growing broiler chickens. The experiment was set up as a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement with a total of 840 male broiler chickens in a complete randomized design (7 pens per treatment and 30 chickens per pen) with the following treatments: 1) pen enrichment (enriched pen or non-enriched pen); 2) broiler strain (fast-growing Ross 308 or slower-growing Hubbard JA 757).

Day-old chicken quality and performance of broiler chickens from 3 different hatching systems.

In on-farm hatching systems, eggs are transported at d 18 of incubation to the broiler farm, where chickens have immediate access to feed and water after hatching. In hatchery-fed systems, newly hatched chickens have immediate access to feed and water in the hatchery and are transported to the farm thereafter. Conventionally hatched chickens can remain without access to feed and water up to 72 h after hatching until placement on the farm.

Effects of on-farm and traditional hatching on welfare, health, and performance of broiler chickens.

In on-farm hatching systems, eggs that have been incubated for 18 D are transported to the broiler farm. After hatching around day 21, the chicks have immediate access to feed and water. By contrast, traditionally hatched chicks are in early life exposed to dust and pathogens in the hatcher, handling procedures, and transport and remain without feed and water until they have arrived on the farm 1 to 3 D after hatching.

Relative contribution of production chain phases to health and performance of broiler chickens: a field study.

There is increasing evidence that health and performance of the breeder flock significantly contributes to health and performance of their progeny. Data of broiler performance and health are routinely collected in various stages of the broiler production chain. In the Netherlands, the broiler chain operates at a relatively non-integrated level and the various databases are usually not connected.

A review on yolk sac utilization in poultry.

During incubation, embryonic growth and development are dependent on nutrients deposited in the egg. The content of the yolk can be transferred to the embryo in 2 ways: directly into the intestine via the yolk stalk or through the highly vascularized yolk sac membrane. It has been suggested that, as a result of genetic selection and improved management, the increase in posthatch growth rate and concurrently the increase in metabolic rate of broiler chickens during the last 50 yr has also increased embryonic metabolism.

Broiler welfare trade-off: A semi-quantitative welfare assessment for optimised welfare improvement based on an expert survey.

In order to support decision making on how to most effectively improve broiler welfare an innovative expert survey was conducted based on principles derived from semantic modelling. Twenty-seven experts, mainly broiler welfare scientists (n = 20; and 7 veterinarians), responded (response rate 38%) by giving welfare scores (GWS, scale 0-10) to 14 benchmarking housing systems (HSs), and explaining these overall scores by selecting, weighing and scoring main welfare parameters, including both input and output measures. Data exploration followed by REML (Linear Mixed Model) and ALM (Automatic Linear Modelling) analyses revealed 6 clusters of HSs, sorted from high to low welfare, i.

Transition from Conventional Broiler Meat to Meat from Production Concepts with Higher Animal Welfare: Experiences from The Netherlands.

Since the 1970s, animal welfare (AW) in Dutch broiler production has been criticized by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the general public. Despite the development of production concepts aimed at improving AW, the conventional concept, which satisfied only the minimum legal requirements, remained by far the most dominant one in the Dutch fresh broiler meat market. Then, quite suddenly, in 2014-2015 (i.

Global Prospects of the Cost-Efficiency of Broiler Welfare in Middle-Segment Production Systems.

In the 2000s, the idea of a so-called middle-segment arose in North-West Europe to address the criticism on intensive broiler production systems. Middle-segment systems being indoor housing of slower-growing broiler strains at a stocking density ≤38 kg/m. Previous literature showed that Dutch middle-segment systems entail a relatively large gain in animal welfare at a relatively low increase in costs, i.

Associations between carcass weight uniformity and production measures on farm and at slaughter in commercial broiler flocks.

In poultry flocks, flock weight uniformity is often defined as the percent individuals within 10% of the mean body weight (BW) and the variability of this uniformity can be expressed as the CV of BW. Flock weight uniformity is a standardized and objective measured, and could potentially be used as a welfare indicator; however, little is known about the relationship between flock uniformity and other production measures on-farm or at slaughter. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between carcass weight uniformity (CV of BW) and production measures on-farm and at slaughter in Norwegian commercial broiler flocks.

A 'meta-analysis' of effects of post-hatch food and water deprivation on development, performance and welfare of chickens.

A 'meta-analysis' was performed to determine effects of post-hatch food and water deprivation (PHFWD) on chicken development, performance and welfare (including health). Two types of meta-analysis were performed on peer-reviewed scientific publications: a quantitative 'meta-analysis' (MA) and a qualitative analysis (QA). Previously reported effects of PHFWD were quantified in the MA, for variables related to performance, mortality and relative yolk sac weight.

Environmental Enrichment for Broiler Breeders: An Undeveloped Field.

Welfare problems, such as hunger, frustration, aggression, and abnormal sexual behavior, are commonly found in broiler breeder production. To prevent or reduce these welfare problems, it has been suggested to provide stimulating enriched environments. We review the effect of the different types of environmental enrichment for broiler breeders, which have been described in the scientific literature, on behavior and welfare.