Hartcher Kate, Nuggehalli Jayasimha, Yang Qing, de Luna Maria Catalina T, Agus Ali, Ito Shuichi, Idrus Zulkifli, Rahayu Iman H S, Jattuchai Jutamart, Descovich Kris, Lane Elissa, Sinclair Michelle
School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Global Food Partners, Singapore.
Anim Welf. 2023 Sep 22;32:e64. doi: 10.1017/awf.2023.85. eCollection 2023.
There is a trend towards the adoption of cage-free housing systems in the egg industry across Asia. While cage-free housing systems can hold significant animal welfare advantages over cages, there can also be challenges in managing these systems. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the perspectives of egg producers on the main challenges and proposed solutions associated with cage-free systems in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Cage-free producers found disease prevention and maintaining a healthy profit margin more difficult than producers from cage farms, while it was less difficult to provide environmental enrichment in cage-free systems compared to cage farms. The top challenges for cage-free producers were the cost of production, system management, disease, sales, and egg production, and the top proposed solution was to improve on-farm practices and efficiencies. Eighty-one percent of egg producers believed that more support is needed to maintain their farms than is currently available, and support was most needed in helping to improve sales, improve farm operations, lower farm costs, and provide information for producers in the form of education and training. Most responses identified the government as the stakeholder that should offer support. These results may help direct further studies in this field as well as supplying information to develop relevant initiatives with an emphasis on education and training, thereby improving animal welfare on cage-free farms and increasing the uptake of high welfare cage-free farms across the region.
亚洲蛋品行业呈现出采用无笼养殖系统的趋势。虽然无笼养殖系统相较于笼养系统在动物福利方面具有显著优势，但管理这些系统也可能存在挑战。这项探索性研究旨在调查中国、印度尼西亚、泰国、日本、马来西亚和菲律宾的蛋鸡养殖户对与无笼养殖系统相关的主要挑战及建议解决方案的看法。无笼养殖的养殖户发现疾病预防和维持健康利润率比笼养养殖户更困难，而与笼养农场相比，在无笼养殖系统中提供环境丰富化则难度较小。无笼养殖养殖户面临的首要挑战是生产成本、系统管理、疾病、销售和鸡蛋产量，而建议的首要解决方案是改进农场实践和提高效率。81%的蛋鸡养殖户认为，与目前相比，维持其养殖场需要更多支持，最需要支持的方面是帮助提高销售、改善农场运营、降低农场成本以及以教育和培训的形式为养殖户提供信息。大多数回复认为政府是应该提供支持的利益相关者。这些结果可能有助于指导该领域的进一步研究，并为制定相关举措提供信息，重点是教育和培训，从而改善无笼养殖场的动物福利，并增加该地区高福利无笼养殖场的采用率。
