Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding, Polish Academy of Sciences, Jastrzebiec, 05-552 Magdalenka, Poland.
Norwegian Meat and Poultry Research Centre, Lorenveien 38, 0515 Oslo, Norway.
Poult Sci. 2019 Sep 1;98(9):3391-3399. doi: 10.3382/ps/pez211.
In commercial conditions turkey tom and hen flocks are reared under similar housing and management conditions. However, the 2 sexes differ with regard to behavioral and physiological characteristics, and are slaughtered at different ages, resulting in different growth patterns. The rearing environment and management likely have similar effects on the welfare of both sexes reared in 1 barn, as usual in commercial flocks, but this has not previously been studied. The main aim of current study was to identify on-farm health and welfare issues of commercially reared hen and tom turkeys at 11 wk of age using the transect walk method. The study was conducted between November 2017 and March 2018 in 20 commercial turkey flocks on 16 different farms in the eastern part of Norway. On each farm, 1 barn, divided into tom and hen area, was evaluated using transect walk method. An observer walked the transects in random order and recorded the total number of birds per transect that were immobile; lame, with visible head, tail, or wing wounds; small; featherless; dirty; sick; terminal or dead. To analyze the data, we applied ANOVA and Spearman correlations in SAS software (v 9.3). The most commonly observed welfare indicators across sexes were dirty and featherless birds, and birds with tail and wing wounds. Across sexes, poor litter quality resulted in more head wounds (P < 0.05). Toms had significantly more tail wounds (P < 0.001), there were more sick birds (P < 0.01) and more terminal birds (P < 0.01) compared to hens at the same age. Several of the welfare indicators were positively correlated between the sexes, including lame, head, wing- and tail-wounded, dirty, and dead birds, suggesting similar underlying environmental causes affecting animal welfare.
在商业条件下，火鸡公鸡和母鸡群体在相似的饲养和管理条件下饲养。然而，这两个性别在行为和生理特征上存在差异，并且在不同的年龄被屠宰，导致不同的生长模式。饲养环境和管理可能对在商业群体中饲养在同一个畜舍中的两性具有相似的影响，就像通常在商业禽类中一样，但这尚未得到研究。当前研究的主要目的是使用横切步行法在 11 周龄时确定商业饲养的母鸡和公鸡火鸡的农场健康和福利问题。该研究于 2017 年 11 月至 2018 年 3 月在挪威东部的 16 个不同农场的 20 个商业火鸡养殖场进行。在每个农场，1 个畜舍，分为公鸡和母鸡区域，使用横切步行法进行评估。观察者随机顺序走横切，记录每横切的总鸟数，这些鸟是不动的；跛行，有可见的头部、尾部或翅膀伤口；小；无毛；肮脏；生病；末期或死亡。为了分析数据，我们在 SAS 软件（v 9.3）中应用了 ANOVA 和 Spearman 相关性。跨性别最常见的福利指标是肮脏和无毛的鸟类，以及有尾巴和翅膀伤口的鸟类。跨性别，较差的垫料质量导致更多的头部伤口（P <0.05）。与母鸡相比，公鸡的尾巴伤口明显更多（P <0.001），病鸟更多（P <0.01），末期鸟更多（P <0.01）。一些福利指标在性别之间呈正相关，包括跛行、头部、翅膀和尾巴受伤、肮脏和死亡的鸟类，这表明类似的潜在环境原因影响动物福利。
