Kozak Agnieszka, Kasperek Kornel, Zięba Grzegorz, Rozempolska-Rucińska Iwona
Institute of Biological Basis of Animal Production, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin 20-950, Poland.
Asian-Australas J Anim Sci. 2019 Jul;32(7):1062-1068. doi: 10.5713/ajas.18.0645. Epub 2019 Jan 2.
For many generations, most species of farm animals have been subjected to intense and strictly targeted selection for improvement of their performance traits. This has led to substantial changes in animal anatomy and physiology, which resulted in considerable differences between the current animal breeds and their wild ancestors. The aim of the study was to determine whether there is breed-specific variability in behaviour as well as differences in emotional reactivity and preferences of laying hens.
The investigations involved 50 Green-legged Partridge, 50 Polbar, and 50 Leghorn hens. All birds were kept in the same conditions, and the behavioural tests were carried out at 30 weeks of age. We used the tonic immobility test and a modified open-field test including such objects as water, commercial feed, feed enriched with cereal grains, finely cut straw, and insect larvae, a sandpit, a mirror, and a shelter imitating a hen nest.
The research results demonstrate that the birds of the analysed breeds differ not only in the excitability and emotional reactivity but, importantly, also in the preferences for environment-enriching elements. Ensuring hens' well-being should therefore be based on environmental modifications that will facilitate acquisition of essential elements of chickens' behaviour. The greatest emotional reactivity was found in the Leghorn breed, which may be a result of correlated selection aimed at an increase in chicken productivity.
The differences in the behaviour of the birds from the analysed breeds indicate that laying hens cannot be regarded as one group of animals with the same environmental requirements.
许多代以来，大多数农场动物品种都经历了强烈且严格定向的选择，以改善其生产性能。这导致了动物解剖学和生理学的重大变化，使得当前的动物品种与其野生祖先之间存在相当大的差异。本研究的目的是确定蛋鸡在行为上是否存在品种特异性差异，以及在情绪反应和偏好方面是否存在差异。
研究涉及50只绿腿鹧鸪鸡、50只波尔巴鸡和50只来航鸡。所有鸡只都在相同条件下饲养，行为测试在30周龄时进行。我们使用了强直性静止测试和改良的旷场测试，测试中包含水、商业饲料、富含谷物的饲料、切碎的稻草、昆虫幼虫、沙坑、镜子以及模仿母鸡巢的遮蔽物等物品。
研究结果表明，所分析品种的鸡不仅在兴奋性和情绪反应上存在差异，重要的是，在对环境丰富元素的偏好上也存在差异。因此，确保母鸡的福祉应基于环境改造，以促进鸡行为基本元素的习得。来航鸡品种的情绪反应最为强烈，这可能是旨在提高鸡生产性能的相关选择的结果。
所分析品种鸡的行为差异表明，不能将蛋鸡视为具有相同环境需求的一类动物。
