Baxter Mary, O'Connell Niamh E
Institute for Global Food Security, Queens University Belfast, 19 Chlorine Gardens, Belfast, BT9 5DL, Northern Ireland.
Sci Rep. 2025 Mar 21;15(1):9738. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-89691-w.
There is a recognised need for environmental enrichment strategies to be developed for broiler parent stock. We evaluated the use and tested preferences for three forms of enrichment in commercial broiler breeder housing: (1) perches (platform perches, round metal perches, round rubber-coated metal perches), (2) pecking enrichments (silver reflective gazing balls, multi-coloured reflective gazing balls, non-reflective gazing balls), and (3) dust baths (oat hulls, sawdust, 50:50 mix). Observations from video footage were conducted during early, peak and late lay of a 44 week production phase on one farm. There was a clear preference for platform perches over both round perches, and for rubber-coated perches over metal perches until late lay. Perching was highest at night but reduced over the cycle. We found a drop off in perching once 23 cm of linear space per bird had been reached, suggesting this represented comfortable maximum capacity. All pecking enrichments attracted interest, with no difference between the three types, although pecking rate reduced across the cycle. House litter was well maintained and dustbathing was widely observed throughout the house, making additional dustbathing areas largely superfluous on this farm. We suggest platform perches and suspended gazing balls to be suitable environmental enrichments for commercial breeder housing.
人们认识到需要为肉种鸡制定环境优化策略。我们评估了商业肉种鸡舍中三种优化形式的使用情况并测试了偏好：（1）栖木（平台栖木、圆形金属栖木、圆形橡胶涂层金属栖木），（2）啄食优化物（银色反光注视球、多色反光注视球、非反光注视球），以及（3）沙浴（燕麦壳、锯末、50:50混合物）。在一个农场44周生产期的产蛋初期、高峰期和后期，对视频片段进行了观察。在产蛋后期之前，母鸡明显更喜欢平台栖木而非圆形栖木，更喜欢橡胶涂层栖木而非金属栖木。栖木行为在夜间最为频繁，但在整个周期中有所减少。我们发现，当每只鸡达到23厘米的线性空间后，栖木行为就会减少，这表明这代表了舒适的最大容量。所有啄食优化物都引起了母鸡的兴趣，三种类型之间没有差异，不过啄食率在整个周期中有所下降。鸡舍垫料维护良好，整个鸡舍都广泛观察到沙浴行为，因此在这个农场，额外的沙浴区域基本上是多余的。我们建议平台栖木和悬挂式注视球适合作为商业种鸡舍的环境优化设施。
