Identifying welfare issues in turkey hen and tom flocks applying the transect walk method.

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.