365 – A review of environmental enrichment for laying hens during rearing in relation to their behavioral and physiological development (Research paper – Campbell – 2019)
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Housing and welfare \ Enrichment
Species targeted: Poultry;
Age: Young;
Summary:
Recently, there has been increasing focus on the impacts of the rearing environment on long-term behavior, health, and welfare of layers. Enriching the rearing environments with physical, sensory, and stimulatory additions can help to maximize the bird’s developmental potential. This review describes the available literature regarding enrichments provided during rearing and the subsequent impact they have on different aspects of behavioral and physiological development, including identifying the ways enrichments could have biological impact. The behaviour of the birds and their needs (dustbathing, perching, foraging) will improve their well-being and will probably result in a bird that is better able to respond to infections. But what exactly the mechanism behind the positive impact of enriched housing environments is on immunocompetence are currently poorly understood due to limited research in this area. There is a need to identify practical cost-effective enrichments that producers would use on-farm and to have commercial validation of positive impacts on aspects of behavior and biology.
Where to find the original material: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579119302822; https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey319
Country: UK; NL; AU
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