The effect of simple cage enrichment on the daytime behavior of native chickens

• Main Authors: Jian-Ren Fang, 方建仁
• Other Authors: Yen-Pai Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/62260515212214800251

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 動物科學系所 === 98 === The majority of country chicken breeders are kept in battery cage in Taiwan. The narrow space and bare environment have an enormous influence on the welfare of chickens. In June 1999 the new European Union Directive on welfare of laying hens was passed, and the directive requires phasing out the battery cages by 2012. Investigations into alternative systems (such as aviaries) and enrichment cages for laying hens should be conducted for the future. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a simple enrichment of cage environment on daytime behavior of native chickens. This study used the six conserved breed chickens which were named Hsin-Yi, Ju-Chi, Hua-Tung, Quemoy, Shek-Ki, and Nagoya. The chickens were 45~51 weeks age old. Each breed had 30 chickens, which were equally allocated to the treatment (hanging red nylon rope in front of the cage) and the control (no red nylon rope) groups. Totally, 180 chickens were used in this experiment. Scan sampling were used for the daytime observations, and it were carried out 5 days per week. The observed time was from 5:00 to 19:00, all birds were scanned once each hour to represent the behavior in the period. The behavior observed were categorized into: ingest, comfort, investigate, rest, alert and other activities. Tonic Immobility test (TI) was carried out after the behavior observation. The results indicated that though the simple environmental enrichment by hanging red nylon rope did not change chicken’s daytime behavior, breeds and egg laying did have some significant effect. Compared to other breeds, Shek-Ki displayed more rest and less comfort behavior; Hua-Tung had more investigate behavior and other activities, Ju-Chi, Shek-Ki and Nagoya showed more ingest behavior, and Hsin-Yi and Quemoy displayed more alert behavior. All birds showed more rest behavior during the non-laying days. TI duration was longer for Hsin-Yi and shorter for Quemoy and Nagoya. The treatment group also had shorter TI duration than the control. White Blood Cell count''s result showed that the Quemoy has the highest H:L ratio, The treatment group did not significant difference with the control. The egg production result showed the egg production and laying rate had significant difference Between various breeds, the treatment group had higher egg production and laying rate with the control. Overall, the simple environmental enrichment although did not affect the hen’s daytime behavior, it might have changed them to be less fearful. It can also improve the egg production of chicken, but the reason awaits the further discussion