Khalfi Bassem, Buyse Kobe, Khan Imad, Carvalho Camila Lopes, Soster Patricia, Antonissen Gunther, Tuyttens Frank André Maurice
Department of Veterinary and Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (ILVO), 9090 Melle, Belgium.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Nov 28;14(23):3448. doi: 10.3390/ani14233448.
Platforms have been shown to be a suitable environmental enrichment for broiler chickens, accommodating their motivation to roost and rest at an elevated position. In order to increase the animal welfare benefits, we designed prototype elevated platforms with additional functionalities: a local cooling system, a sheltered area underneath the platform and collection trays underneath the platform that prevent manure from falling on the litter. This study assessed the effects of these multifunctional platforms during thermoneutral and heat stress conditions on two key determinants of their commercial uptake potential, namely production performance, carcass and meat quality. In each of the three experimental rounds, 560 one-day-old male chicks (Ross 308) were equally assigned to four pens and reared for 43 days. The barn was divided into two compartments (thermoneutral and heat), each containing one enriched and one barren pen. To induce heat stress, the ambient temperature was increased to 32 °C during 6 h/day when the birds were 29-40 d old. The platforms did not compromise broiler performance. Heat stress negatively impacted body weight ( = 0.008), average daily gain ( = 0.009) and feed intake ( < 0.001) and improved the feed conversion ratio ( = 0.026). The platforms reduced mortality rate under heat stress but not under thermoneutral conditions (heat × enrichment = 0.025), likely due to the cooling functionality. No major effects of the platforms on overall carcass and meat quality were observed, except for a reduction in the risk of breast muscle myopathies ( < 0.001), which could enhance consumer acceptance and improve profitability. To conclude, the use of cooled platforms under the conditions of this experiment mitigated the adverse effects of heat stress on mortality, reduced the risk of breast muscle myopathies and did not compromise any other production or carcass and meat quality parameters.
平台已被证明是肉鸡适宜的环境富集设施，能满足它们在高处栖息和休息的需求。为了增加动物福利效益，我们设计了具有附加功能的原型高架平台：局部冷却系统、平台下方的遮蔽区域以及平台下方的收集托盘，可防止粪便落到垫料上。本研究评估了这些多功能平台在热中性和热应激条件下对其商业应用潜力的两个关键决定因素的影响，即生产性能、胴体和肉质。在三个实验轮次中的每一轮，560只一日龄雄性雏鸡（罗斯308）被平均分配到四个鸡舍中饲养43天。鸡舍分为两个隔间（热中性和热环境），每个隔间包含一个配备富集设施的鸡舍和一个无富集设施的鸡舍。为了诱导热应激，在鸡29至40日龄时，每天6小时将环境温度提高到32°C。这些平台并未影响肉鸡的性能。热应激对体重（P = 0.008）、平均日增重（P = 0.009）和采食量（P < 0.001）产生负面影响，并改善了饲料转化率（P = 0.026）。这些平台降低了热应激条件下的死亡率，但在热中性条件下未降低（热应激×富集设施，P = 0.025），这可能是由于冷却功能。除了降低胸肌肌病风险（P < 0.001）外，未观察到这些平台对整体胴体和肉质有重大影响，这可能会提高消费者接受度并提高盈利能力。总之，在本实验条件下使用冷却平台减轻了热应激对死亡率的不利影响，降低了胸肌肌病风险，且未影响任何其他生产、胴体和肉质参数。
