Welfare implications of laying hen housing
Literature Review
January 26, 2012
This peer-reviewed summary has been prepared by the American Veterinary Medical Association Animal Welfare Division. While principally a review of the scientific literature, it may also include information gleaned from proprietary data, legislative and regulatory review, market conditions, and scholarly ethical assessments. It is provided as information and its contents should not be construed as official AVMA policy. Mention of trade names, products, commercial practices or organizations does not imply endorsement by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
The issue
Conventional cage
Definition: A wire enclosure housing 3 to 6 birds and having a sloped floor. In commercial production however, birds are commonly housed at the density of 7 to 8 birds per cage.
Advantages:
Reduced exposure to environmental and social hazards: Cages reduce the negative consequences of contact with manure, including infestation with roundworms and coccidia.1 Cages also provide protection from predators and other wildlife.
Reduced proliferation of injurious pecking and subsequent mortalities: If hens begin to cause serious pecking injury2 then the small social group size in each cage limits the proliferation of pecking and subsequent mortalities that may be associated with it.
Monitoring: Conventional caging improves the opportunity to monitor individual birds' health and well-being.
Biosecurity: Hens housed in cage housing systems are at a lower risk of infectious disease than hens housed in litter-based systems irregardless of outdoor access.3
Air Quality: Conventional caging does not incorporate the use of litter. Litter-based systems have been shown to have increased levels of ammonia, dust, and bacteria.4
Disadvantages:
Restriction of natural behaviors: Hens in cages are less able to perform behaviors such as dust bathing,5 walking6 and foraging.5 Spatial restriction has also been shown to decrease the hen's performance of comfort behaviors (e.g., wing flapping, stretching, body shakes, tail wagging).6 Nesting and roosting are not options in the conventional caging systems.
Variable risk—Cage-related injury: Hens may become trapped between wires, or experience foot damage secondary to overgrown claws. However improved cage designs7 and the use of abrasive strips8 largely eliminate these occurrences.
Variable risk—Feather pecking: Injurious feather pecking does occur in cages, often necessitating beak trimming. Providing devices such as plastic objects in a conventional cage,9,10 or balls in the feeder11,12 has produced equivocal results; however, string tassels13,14,15,16 may have some potential to attract pecking and reduce associated injuries. Selection methods in which the genetic effect of an animal on the survival of its group members is taken into account (group selection) have been shown to be effective in reducing mortality due to feather pecking and cannibalism in laying hens.17
Summary: Cages can provide a highly controllable environment that protects hens from a range of health and injury problems; however, they afford limited space and behavioral enrichments (e.g., opportunities for perching and dust bathing) and many natural behaviors cannot be performed in conventionally-sized and equipped cages. Cages tend to have an economic advantage. Egg production,2,18,19 quality2,20,21 and efficiency22 are often greatest in cage systems.
Enriched/furnished cage
Effective environmental features provide specific benefits. Most enriched housing would include the following:
Perches: Hens are motivated to perch, especially to roost at night.25,26 Perches improve bone strength,27,28 as well as foot2 and claw condition.2However, perch use can lead to proliferative hyperkeratosis.29
Nest box/area: When a nest box is available most eggs are laid in it.2,30 Hens will make an effort to gain access to nest boxes31,32 even when they have no prior experience with using one.33,34 If eggs are laid in the nest, the number of damaged eggs is similar between enriched and standard cages.35
Litter: Early access to litter may reduce later incidence of feather pecking36 and may improve adult feather condition.2,37 Most hens will use a dust bath if it is available, for either bathing or foraging.27,31 Consumption of litter was not observed to effect egg production.38
Increased behavioral opportunities: Additional space allows birds more freedom of movement39 and therefore behaviors such as stretching, wing flapping, and walking are more unrestricted and varied.
Health: Dietary health can be better controlled in hens housed in confined environments, allowing for a more balanced intake of nutrients needed for body maintenance and egg production.40 However, access to non-nutritive substances such as dust bathing material or litter can lead to imbalanced nutrient intake.40 Additionally, bone mineral density is increased for hens in enriched housing compared with hens housed in conventional cages.41 Mortality is numerically lower in enriched colony housing when compared to conventional cages, barn/aviary, and free-range housing.42
Variable risk—Feature malfunction: Each of the additional features in an enriched colony has the potential to malfunction causing injury, harboring disease vectors or parasites or provoking aggression. For example, poorly designed perches can cause increased levels of keel deformation2 and or bumblefoot.43
Summary: There are multiple models of enriched/furnished housing in use and more under development. They provide a wider range of behavioral opportunities, while conserving many of the advantages of a conventional cage. Egg shell quality35 and shell cleanliness44 are similar between conventional cages and enriched colonies with the exception of enriched colonies that are designed with scratch pad areas covered in sand or wood shavings. These designs can lead to dirtier eggs than what is seen in conventional caging.41 In addition the excretion of Calcium and Phosphorus, two minerals important to shell quality, are reduced in enriched housing situations as compared to conventional cages.45
Barn or aviary
Health: Barn- and aviary-raised hens may show improvement in bone strength over hens raised in enriched colonies46 and lower levels of hyperkeratosis are evident in birds that do not have access to perches.29
Increased activity: Hens kept in barns spend more time walking than those kept in cages.5
Increased behavioral opportunities: Increased performance of foraging,5 dust bathing5 and comfort behaviors5,47 and a reduction in stereotypies.4
Vector exposure: Birds raised on the floor are more likely to encounter disease vectors in feces or dampened litter, potentially leading to reduced health48 and conditions such as bumblefoot.19 This may require handling of the birds to administer treatments or preventatives such as vaccination against coccidiosis.1
Health: Hens in extensive systems that utilize perches tend to suffer more injuries due to landing failures when jumping from one perch to another. In addition, high usage of perches by hens can lead to keel bone deformation.44 Overall performance is more variable, depending on outbreaks of coccidiosis or pecking mortalities.49 In some cases, floor housing results in high mortality due to pecking50 but some reviews do not support this as a general finding.19
Variable risk—Increased group size: Extensive housing systems typically house larger flocks with an increased risk of injurious pecking and pecking mortalities.51
Air Quality: Litter based systems have been shown to have increased levels of ammonia, dust, and bacteria.4 Increased ammonia levels can cause keratoconjunctivitis and have deleterious effects on the respiratory tracts of birds.4 Dust in housing systems can be biologically active and may have microorganisms attached to the particles.4
Free-range
Summary: When access to the outdoors is provided hens are able to perform the broadest range of naturalistic behaviors, but they may also be exposed to climatic extremes, toxins and disease.
Other considerations
Conclusions
One key decision to be made by producers, consumers and regulators is how to balance the hen's freedom to exercise and perform natural behaviors against exposure to potential hazards such as disease vectors and large social groups. To make this judgment in a transparent manner the advantages, disadvantages and risks associated with each system should be acknowledged. The priorities of all of the stakeholders including regulatory bodies, consumers and producers should also be transparent. As the causes of health conditions like osteoporosis and behaviors such as injurious pecking are better understood the relative advantages and disadvantages of these systems will change and new systems may emerge.
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