Effect of simulated long transport on behavioural characteristics in two strains of laying hen chicks
Introduction
A large body of research in chickens indicates that the early environment is crucial for the development of later behaviour. Different studies document effects of exposure to novelty (Jones, 1997), human contact or handling (Grigor et al., 1995, Fluck et al., 1997), environmental enrichment (Jones, 1982), cold stress (Davis and Fischer, 1978), mechanical restraint (Marin et al., 2001) and access to perches (Gunnarsson et al., 2000). However, there is no information about how exposure to long durations of transport in day old chicks might affect their subsequent behaviour. This is important because conventional layer and broiler chicks are handled in connection with sorting, sexing, immunization and packaging, and then transported over rather long distances for delivery to the farm. According to current EU legislation pullets can be transported for a maximum of 24 h and chicks may be held without access to feed or water for up to 72 h post-hatch. Although this legislation is based on the fact that chicks can survive on metabolic reserves stored in their yolk sack for up to 3 days, it is possible that exposure to long durations of transport without access to feed or water may cause some stress in chicks and adversely affect their development.
Different laying hen strains may differ in their behaviour and the ability to cope with stressors (Klein et al., 2000, Hocking et al., 2004). For example, Webster (1995) found that Hy-Line W77 hens were more adversely affected by a short period of fasting than Hy-Line brown hens, suggesting that these white birds may have a higher sensitivity to metabolic perturbations than the brown birds. Anecdotally, producers often report differences between different lines. They suggest that Hy-Line white hens are more flighty than Hy-Line brown hens and that ISA brown hens have a higher tendency to feather peck than ISA white hens. Brown Hy-Line hens have also been said to be less prone to use perches that white Hy-Line birds. The effects of stress may therefore be expected to depend on the strain's genetic constitution.
The aim of this experiment was therefore to study the effect of the stress caused by a prolonged transport-like treatment on the behaviour of two strains of commercial laying hen chicks. The treatment was meant to provide a standardized application of some of the conditions causing stress during transportation, including prolonged feed and water restriction, novelty, confinement and intermittent movement. The strains were selected from the same breeding company but represent slightly differing breeding goals. The Hy-Line W-36 (W-36) is mainly used for production using cage housing, whereas the Hy-Line Brown (HB) is used for production using both cage and floor systems (http://www.hyline.com/). The W-36 also has a slightly higher feed conversion ratio than the HB (ibid), a factor that has previously been shown to influence the ability to cope with stressors (Braastad and Katle, 1989, Beilharz et al., 1993, Beilharz and Mitpaiboon, 1994).
Our arguments for choosing to test for effects of a long duration of simulated transport on growth, fear of humans induced by manual restraint (tonic immobility), the ability to compete for access to feed in hungry chicks and the development of perching behaviour are given in the following. In general we predicted that if the treatment was detrimental to chick development it should decrease growth rates, increase fearfulness, reduce the ability of chicks to compete and reduce the development of perching behaviour. Growth was chosen as a response variable because stress may inhibit insulin-like growth factor-I secretion and negatively affect growth (Vance et al., 1992, Kakizawa et al., 1995, Bruggeman et al., 1997). We measured the duration of tonic immobility in response to manual restraint because of evidence that the duration of tonic immobility increases in chickens exposed to stress (Jones, 1986), possibly because of exposure to elevated levels of endogenous corticotrophin releasing factor (Adamec et al., 1991). Competitive responses were measured because stress may inhibit the production of gonadal steroids such as testosterone (Rivier and Rivest, 1991) and because low levels of testosterone may attenuate aggressive and competitive responses. Perching is important for the welfare of birds (Gunnarsson et al., 1999, Gunnarsson et al., 2000) and depends on coordinated cognitive and motor development (Gunnarsson et al., 2000). Furthermore, previous experiments show that stress may impair cognitive processes (De Kloet et al., 2005, Hage et al., 2006) and could therefore impair the development of normal perching behaviour in chicks.
Section snippets
Chicks
Forty Hy-Line W-36 (W-36) and 40 Hy-Line Brown chicks were studied in two batches (December 2004 and February 2005). Both batches included 20 chicks of each strain. Due to logistic reasons the batches were bought from two different commercial hatcheries. The chicks were brought from the hatchery on the day they were hatched (day 0), after they were sorted and vaccinated for Marek's disease. The Hy-Line W-36 strain has a higher conversion rate than the Hy-Line Brown (113 g/bird/day versus 92
Weight and weight gain
There was no significant effect of strain or treatment (P > 0.1 for all) on weight of the chicks, even though HB birds were numerically heavier week 3 and week 5 than W-36 birds. Weight gain was not affected by treatment (P > 0.1 for all), but HB birds grew significantly faster than W-36 birds (P < 0.001; Table 1).
Perching behaviour
The chicks were first seen perching on average on day 6.2 (1.2) (mean and (S.D.)) after hatching. Perching frequency increased slightly from day 6 to day 11 after the day of the first
Discussion
Despite our expectation that simulated long transport might adversely affect growth and behavioural development only sporadic effects were found. There was no difference in weight or weight gain of birds nor in their fearfulness measured as the duration of TI between the two treatments. However, we did find that W-36 treated birds from the LONG treatment performed worse in the food competition test than birds exposed to the shorter duration of transport. In addition, and contrary to our
Conclusions
A simulated long transport of day old chicks did not affect their body weight, growth, or the duration of tonic immobility in response to manual restraint, which was used as an indicator of fearfulness. Simulated long transport did reduce the ability of W-36 birds to compete for access to feed, suggesting that the W-36 birds were more sensitive to the effects of the simulated long transport as a putative stressor. This interpretation of the treatment effect on W-36 birds corresponded well to
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Norwegian Centre for Poultry Science, the Norwegian Research Council, and the Finnish Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry (Grant number 3955/39/2002). Matti Heikkilä is thanked for his contribution to planning this experiment and testing the birds.
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