Feather eating and its associations with plumage damage and feathers on the floor in commercial farms of laying hens

Animal : an International Journal of Animal Bioscience
A B Riber, Lena K Hinrichsen

Abstract

Feather eating has been associated with feather pecking, which continues to pose economic and welfare problems in egg production. Knowledge on feather eating is limited and studies of feather eating in commercial flocks of laying hens have not been performed previously. Therefore, the main objective was to investigate feather eating and its association with plumage damage and floor feather characteristics in commercial flocks of layers in barn and organic production systems. The study was performed in 13 flocks of barn layers and 17 flocks of organic layers. Each flock was visited at around 32 and 62 weeks of age. During both visits, the plumage condition was assessed and the density of floor feathers recorded. In week 62, droppings and floor feathers were collected. Droppings were examined for presence of feather content, whereas length, downiness and pecking damage were recorded for each floor feather. In week 62, a higher prevalence of hens with poor plumage condition was found in barn (22.2%) compared with organic production systems (7.4%; P<0.001), but the prevalence of droppings with feather content did not differ between the two production systems (8.5% in barn v. 4.3% in organic; P=0.99). Our hypothesis about a positive...Continue Reading

References

May 19, 2001·Applied Animal Behaviour Science·D E.F. McKeegan, C J. Savory
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Dec 17, 2010·British Poultry Science·K A DrakeM Stamp Dawkins

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Citations

Jan 13, 2018·Frontiers in Veterinary Science·Anja B Riber, Lena K Hinrichsen
Jan 13, 2016·Animal : an International Journal of Animal Bioscience·L K HinrichsenR Labouriau
Jun 13, 2019·Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice·N J IduoriyekemwenM T Abiodun
May 12, 2020·Animal : an International Journal of Animal Bioscience·A ArrazolaS Torrey

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