By Marcela Quino and Bethany Baker-Cook, PhD, Auburn University
Enrichment is the process of improving the environment of an animal, to meet their behavioral needs and ultimately improve their welfare. Enrichment helps to reduce stress and improve welfare by providing physical and mental stimulation, encouraging highly-motivated species specific behaviors, allowing the animal more control over their life and environment, as well as increasing an animal’s ability to cope with physiological and behavioral challenges.
Although the research related to enrichments for broiler breeders is sparse, there are several different types of enrichments that have been shown to be beneficial for broiler breeders. This article will cover a few of the enrichments that are effective for broiler breeders. For more information on broiler-specific enrichments, click here.
An effective enrichment will reduce or prevent abnormal behaviors, reduce stress and fear, increase behavioral choice, or improve physical and mental health. A variety of enrichments are available, with physical (these increase environmental complexity and provide animals the opportunity to perform natural behaviors) e.g. a perch or tactile (these encourage animals’ investigation and play behavior) being the most commonly used e.g. bales of substrates.
Enrichments can be used throughout all phases of broiler breeder production: brooking, rearing and laying phases.
When enrichments are introduced early in production, the interaction with enrichments and complex environments has been shown to have long term positive impacts on bird behavior and welfare. For example, studies have been that providing enrichment during rearing improves neuroplasticity, reduces incidences of feather pecking and feather damage (Hocking et al,2005), decreases the bird’s fear levels (Brake et al., 1994), and improves behaviors such as nestbox usage (Brake, 1987) later in production.
Perches and elevated structures
Birds exhibit a preference for high resting places due to a motivated instinct to protect themselves from predators (de Jong and van Emous, 2017). Overall, studies on perches show that broiler breeders are highly motivated to perch and particularly at night foresting (Gebhardt-Henrich, et al., 2017). Different studies have looked at broiler breeder preference on perch design, focusing on different materials (wood, metal, plastic), dimensions, and different shapes (rectangular, rounded/oval, circular/round, mushroom-shaped) (Brandes et al., 2022; Vasdal et al., 2022b). Overall, it seems that perch height is more critical to the decisions on perch usage than material or shape (Vasdal et al., 2022b).
Different perch design shapes – Brandes et al., 2022.
Overall benefits of perches are the ability to perform highly motivated perching behavior, increase in nest usage and reduction in floor eggs, improved leg health and footpad dermatitis scores, improved survival rate during heat stress, and reduction in fear level. Brake, 1987; Brake et al., 1994; Gebhardt-Henrich, et al., 2017;Gebhardt-Henrich,et al., 2018; Vasdal et al., 2022a) However, some studies have found an increase in keel bone fractures when broiler breeders had access to perches (Gebhardt-Henrich, et al., 2017;Gebhardt-Henrich, et al., 2018; Vasdal et al., 2022a).
Cover panels
Cover panels are mesh screen panels attached to a support stand placed within the litter area of the floor. These panels provide birds with an opportunity to hide and allow for better distribution of males and females throughout the house (Leone and Estevez, 2008; Estevez,2009). Overall, the cover panels have been found to reduce wing, tail, and head injuries, and they also increased egg production, as well as resulted in a higher peak fertility, a longer laying period, and improved hatchability (Leone and Estevez, 2008).
Bales of substrate
Photo: Bethany Baker-Cook, PhD
Bales of substrate such as wood shavings, straw, or lucerne hay are another possible enrichments. These bales of substrate provide birds with the opportunity to perch, perform exploratory behaviors, and provide an opportunity to avoid other birds. In broiler breeders, studies have looked at bales of wood shavings, and have found that the addition of these enrichment reduces aggression during rearing, decreases the number of head peck injuries, and improves eggshell quality, and helps promote leg and bone health (King et al., 2001; Edmond et al., 2004).
Final notes
- The provision of enrichments helps promote highly motivated species-specific behaviors, reduces aggression and abnormal behaviors, benefits bird health, and can improve egg production, egg quality, as well as hatchability and fertility.
- More research is needed on enrichment usage in broiler breeders, and it’s impact on bird welfare and productivity. As well as research looking at the best way to adopt enrichments within our current management systems.
References
Brandes, A[MQ1] .G., M.F. Giersberg, N. Kemper, B. Spindler (2020). Provision of perches and their use by broiler breeders on the basis of a case study. Europ. Poult. Sci., 84, pp. 1-13
Brake, J. (1987) Influence of presence of perches during rearing on incidence of floor laying in broiler breeders. Poul. Sci. 66, 1587–1589.
Brake, J., Keeley, T.P. and Jones, R.B. (1994). Effect of age and presence of perches during rearing on tonic immobility fear reactions of broiler breeder pullets. Poul. Sci. 73,1470–1474.
Estevez I. Behavior and environmental enrichment in broiler breeders. (2009) In: Hocking P, editor. Biology of Breeding Poultry. Bodmin, UK: CAB International; . pp. 261–83.
Gebhardt-Henrich S., Toscano M, Würbel H. (2017) Perch use by broiler breeders and its implication on health and production. Poult. Sci., 96, pp. 3539-3549.
Gebhardt-Henrich S.,Toscano M., Würbel H (2018). Use of areal perches and perches on aviary tiers by broiler breeders. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 203, pp. 24-33.
Hocking, P., Jones, E.and Picard, M. (2005). Assessing the welfare consequences of providing litter for feed-restricted broiler breeders. Bri. Poul. Sci. 46, 545–552.
de Jong I., Fillerup M., Blokhuis H.(2005). Effect of scattered feeding and feeding twice a day during rearing on indicators of hunger and frustration in broiler breeders. Appl Anim Behav Sci 92:61–76.
de Jong, I, and Van Emous R. (2017) Broiler breeding flocks: management and animal welfare. Pages 211–230.
King L. (2001). Environmental enrichment and aggression in commercial broiler breeder production? In: Garner JP, Mench JA, Heekin SP, editors. Proceedings of the 35th Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology; Aug 4–9; Davis, California, USA. p. 174.
Leone E., Estevez I. (2008). Economic and welfare benefits of environmental enrichment for broiler breeders. Poult. Sci. 87:14–21. 10.3382/ps.2007-00154
Van Middelkoop, Van der Haar J., Robinson F., Luzi C, Zuidhof M.. (2000). The application of scatter feeding in managing feed restriction during the rearing of broiler breeders. Proceedings of the 21st World’s Poultry Congress, Montréal.
Vasdal, S. Gebhardt-Henrich, Tahamtani F., and Kittelsen K. (2022a). Effect of perch access on perching, health, and production outcomes in commercial broiler breeder flocks. Poul. Sci. 101 (11). 102160.
Vasdal, S. Gebhardt-Henrich, Kittelsen K., and Tahamtani F. (2022b). Commercial broiler breeder pullet hens use perches but show no preference for perch type or height. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 249,Article 105608.
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