Flock use of the range is associated with the use of different components of a multi-tier aviary system in commercial free-range laying hens.


Journal

British poultry science
ISSN: 1466-1799
Titre abrégé: Br Poult Sci
Pays: England
ID NLM: 15740290R

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
Apr 2020
Historique:
pubmed: 31 10 2019
medline: 2 7 2020
entrez: 31 10 2019
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

1. The objective of this study was to investigate the association of using a multi-tier aviary system and access to range on flock uniformity in free-range laying hens, and to determine whether the extent of range use or flock uniformity can be predicted from the use of different levels of the aviary system.2. A total of 13,716 Lohmann Brown hens from five commercial free-range flocks housed in identical houses on the same farm were individually weighed at 16 weeks of age and allocated to five replicate areas within each house. Hen movement in the multi-tier aviary system and on the range was individually monitored using radio frequency identification (RFID). All hens had access to the range from 18 to 22 weeks of age and were exposed to the same management conditions.3. Whilst only one flock significantly changed its flock uniformity with time, they differed from each other in uniformity and body weight (P = 0.001).4. Hens spent most of their available time on the lower aviary tier (7.29 ± 0.029 h/hen/day) and on the upper aviary tier (4.29 ± 0.024 h/hen/day) while the least amount of time was spent on the range and in the nest boxes (0.93 ± 0.005 h/hen/day and 1.48 ± 0.007 h, respectively, P = 0.001).5. Range use was negatively correlated (r = -0.30) to the time spent on the upper aviary tier and positively correlated (r = 0.46) to the time spent on the lower aviary tier (P = 0.001). Bivariate analysis revealed that range and upper aviary resp. lower aviary tier usage had a significant curvilinear association.6. In conclusion, the study showed that range use was associated to the time hens spent on the different tiers of the aviary system. Flock uniformity varied between flocks but was not associated with either range and aviary system usage.

Identifiants

pubmed: 31661978
doi: 10.1080/00071668.2019.1686123
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

97-106

Auteurs

T Z Sibanda (TZ)

School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

S W Walkden-Brown (SW)

School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

M Kolakshyapati (M)

School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

B Dawson (B)

School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

D Schneider (D)

Precision Agriculture Reserach Group, School of Science and Technology, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

M Welch (M)

Precision Agriculture Reserach Group, School of Science and Technology, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

Z Iqbal (Z)

School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

A Cohen-Barnhouse (A)

School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

N K Morgan (NK)

School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

J Boshoff (J)

Computation, Analytics, Software and Informatics, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

I Ruhnke (I)

School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

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Classifications MeSH