He Shuai, Lin Jiao, Jin Qiongyu, Ma Xiaohan, Liu Zhongying, Chen Hui, Ma Ji, Zhang Huancheng, Descovich Kris, Phillips Clive J C, Hartcher Kate, Wu Zhonghong
State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Aug 16;12(16):2090. doi: 10.3390/ani12162090.
Several countries and regions have regulations in place to provide standards for the welfare of production animals, which have implications for breeding, management and trade. In the chicken egg production industry, the welfare impacts of this are not well understood. In the past decades, free-range systems were widely used for local chicken breeds in poultry industry in China, but their use has gradually declined due to the lower competitiveness compared to commercial cage systems. However, the practices of free-range systems for hens raising have gradually increased again over the past decade, as consumer individualized demand for higher food quality and animal welfare has increased. We recruited 14 free-range farms and 45 cage farms from Beijing, Shandong, Hebei, Anhui, Yunnan, Gansu and Jiangsu provinces in China, for an evaluation of hen welfare, production and economic outcomes from farm operations. This study provides data for the welfare outcomes of laying hens in China and preliminarily explored the relationship between welfare level and economic income within farming system types. The researchers visited the farms and used Welfare Quality measures to investigate the welfare, and farm self-reported profits. Nonparametric Mann−Whitney U tests were used to compare the welfare scores between cage and free-range rearing farms. Correlation and regression are used for the analysis of the animal welfare scores, economic data, and production metrics. The general income from free-range farms was linearly correlated with red mite score and stocking density (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). The results showed less centimeters of feeder and drinker space per animal in the free-range system than in cage systems (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively). Welfare scores for both the stocking density and beak condition were significantly better in the free-range systems than the cage systems (p < 0.001), as were qualitative behavior assessment scores (p < 0.05). The total egg production and peak egg production in cage farms were much higher than in free-range farms (p < 0.001), and egg loss rate was significantly lower (p < 0.001). While the production efficiency of free-range farms was lower than that of cage farms, general income per 10,000 hens was actually higher. Our results provide some evidence that some welfare indicators and general income (per 10,000 hens) in free-range farms in China were better than those of cage farms. The results indicate that better parasite control and lower stocking densities may result in improved hen welfare on free-range farms and potentially improve profitability. The level of welfare and economic benefits of free-range farms vary widely, and there was potential room for improvement in feeding space, drinking water space and human−animal relationship.
一些国家和地区制定了相关法规，为养殖动物的福利提供标准，这对育种、管理和贸易都有影响。在蛋鸡生产行业，其对福利的影响尚未得到充分理解。在过去几十年里，中国家禽业广泛采用放养系统养殖地方鸡种，但由于与商业笼养系统相比竞争力较低，其使用逐渐减少。然而，在过去十年中，随着消费者对更高食品质量和动物福利的个性化需求增加，母鸡放养系统的应用又逐渐增多。我们从中国北京、山东、河北、安徽、云南、甘肃和江苏等省份招募了14个放养农场和45个笼养农场，以评估母鸡福利、生产情况以及农场运营的经济成果。本研究提供了中国蛋鸡福利成果的数据，并初步探讨了养殖系统类型中福利水平与经济收入之间的关系。研究人员走访了这些农场，采用“福利质量”指标来调查福利情况以及农场自行上报的利润。使用非参数曼-惠特尼U检验来比较笼养和放养农场的福利得分。采用相关性和回归分析动物福利得分、经济数据和生产指标。放养农场的总体收入与红螨得分和饲养密度呈线性相关（分别为p < 0.001和p < 0.05）。结果显示，放养系统中每只动物的采食和饮水空间厘米数比笼养系统少（分别为p < 0.05和p < 0.01）。放养系统中饲养密度和喙部状况的福利得分均显著高于笼养系统（p < 0.001），定性行为评估得分也是如此（p < 0.05）。笼养农场的总产蛋量和产蛋高峰期产量远高于放养农场（p < 0.001），且蛋损失率显著更低（p < 0.001）。虽然放养农场的生产效率低于笼养农场，但每10000只母鸡的总体收入实际上更高。我们的研究结果提供了一些证据，表明中国放养农场的一些福利指标和总体收入（每10000只母鸡）优于笼养农场。结果表明，更好的寄生虫控制和更低的饲养密度可能会改善放养农场母鸡的福利，并有可能提高盈利能力。放养农场的福利水平和经济效益差异很大，在采食空间、饮水空间和人畜关系方面有改善的潜力。
