Baker, LJ

Brocklehurst, Sarah

Donbavand, JE

Sandilands, V

English

The EU Directive on laying hens says ‘laying hens must have... litter such that pecking and scratching are possible’. In enriched (furnished) cages, litter is typically provided as layer’s mash (“scratch feed”) on a mat, but there are no requirements for mat size, location or makeup. Commercial furnished cages offer various scratch mat materials and sizes, which may influence behaviour. This study compared hen behaviour on four mat designs. A commercial shed with 60-bird Big Dutchman (BD) cages was used. Cages were arranged over six banks and nine tiers. Twenty-four cages in banks 2-5, tier 5 (6 cages/bank) were used. Cages contained two scratch mats. Prior to flock arrival, some BD mats were replaced with other mat types in a balanced design, so that mats were equally represented across banks, cage locations, and cage sides. All mat pairs/cage were of two different designs: BD, Kovobel (K), Valli (V), or Zucami (Z), which varied in size, shape, and colour. Mat areas (cm2) were: 927.5 (BD), 579.5 (K), 806.4 (V), and 2016.0 (Z). Hen behaviour at the mats was recorded at three observation points relative to scratch feed application at 30, 50 and 79 weeks of age. Observations were 1st (1 h 40 min-4 h 45 min since last scratch feed), 2nd (during/immediately after scratch feed), 3rd (40 min-1 h since last scratch feed). At the 2nd observation, only half the cages were observed (balanced for mat designs) to capture behaviour when scratch feed was most likely to be present. Behaviour proportions were analysed using Generalised Linear Mixed models (GLMMs) for binomial data, with logit link, and Linear Mixed models (LMMs) on angular transformed data. Fixed effects were age, observation, mat type and their interactions; random effects were bank, cage, cage.age, cage.age.observation and cage side within cage. Analyses shows results back transformed to proportions. This study was ethically approved by SRUC’s AWERB. Proportions of birds on the mats overall were low and declined from 30 and 50 weeks to 79 weeks (0.028, 0.030, and 0.020, respectively; P&lt;0.001). More birds were observed on Z (P&lt;0.001), but relative to mat area, most birds were seen on K (P&lt;0.001). Mat types had little influence on foraging behaviour. Foraging was highest when scratch feed was present (1st 0.000, 2nd 0.015, 3rd 0.000, P&lt;0.001), but the amount of time observed foraging overall was small, and there was no evidence to suggest that mat design influenced foraging behaviour

SRUC - Scotland's Rural College

Scotland's Rural CollegeDo different scratch mats influence hen behaviour in enriched cages?Sandilands, V; Baker, LJ; Donbavand, JE; Brocklehurst, SarahPublished in:Proceedings of the 54th Congress of the ISAEPrint publication: 02/08/2021Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink to publicationCitation for pulished version (APA):Sandilands, V., Baker, LJ., Donbavand, JE., & Brocklehurst, S. (2021). Do different scratch mats influence henbehaviour in enriched cages? In Proceedings of the 54th Congress of the ISAE: 2-6 August 2021 Onlinecongress (pp. 235-235)General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.            • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.            • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain            • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ?Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediatelyand investigate your claim.Download date: 28. Dec. 2021

Do different scratch mats influence hen behaviour in enriched cages?

https://pure.sruc.ac.uk/files/42469251/ISAE_2021_scratch_mat_abstract_Proceedings.pdf

Do different scratch mats influence hen behaviour in enriched cages?

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SRUC - Scotland's Rural College