Page 4 - National Poultry Newspaper

When it comes to the egg chicken industry, males are out and females are in.
ALONG with the jux- taposition of egg-laying chickens being bred and raised to lay eggs consistently and quickly and meat chickens being bred and raised to lay down meat consistently and quickly, comes wel- fare issues.
Such a negative rela- tionship between egg production and fattening performance in chickens has resulted in specialised strains for egg and meat production.
Along with this comes the egg industry killing off one-day-old male chicks because they serve no economic purpose.
A recent article I read in the January issue 63 of the RSPCA’s always-informa- tive and thought-provok- ing ‘Animal Welfare Sci- ence Update’ discussed the current developments in Germany and the three different methods to avoid killing male layer chicks.
The first is in ovo sex determination, which in- volves sexing the eggs using endocrinological or optical methods and de- stroying male embryos before hatching.
This system is 98 per- cent accurate by the ninth day of incubation and commercially available in Germany.
The second method in- volves using dual-purpose breeds, where hens from these lines lay a sufficient number of eggs, while the males have an acceptable fattening performance.
Using dual-purpose breeds allows females to be used for egg produc- tion and males to be fat- tened for meat production.
Cant Comment by BRENDON CANT
However, these breeds will never achieve the high production rates of the specialised breeds and are not yet available on a commercial scale in Ger- many.
The final method is rearing males of spe- cialised egg production strains for meat produc- tion, something that is currently being employed by the organic sector as an interim method while dual-purpose breeds are developed, as in ovo sex determination is unaccep- table to this sector.
The number of male lay- er chicks raised in Ger- many has increased from 100,000 per year in 2015 to 270,000 per year in 2018 and they take 8.5 to 18 weeks to reach a mar- ketable weight.
In terms of animal wel-
fare, rearing male layers is largely unproblematic, with 89 percent of Ger- man consumers willing to pay more for eggs if the male chickens were raised.
According to RSPCA’s Science Update, while there are challenges in raising male chickens in a resource-friendly and ecologically sustain- able manner, this practice shows how an industry can react to societal con- cerns immediately, before longer-term solutions are available for the entire system of modern poultry production.
The same edition shone a light on another chicken welfare issue: how the quality of artificial light- ing enjoyed (or not) by in- door broiler chickens can influence behaviour and welfare.
According to a UK study investigating the effect on broiler chicken welfare of providing artificial UVA and UVB light, provid- ing UVA light, part of the UV spectrum, appears to make the environment more attractive, encourag- ing foraging activity and preening while reducing fearfulness and stress.
Though news to me, ap- parently chickens can see ultraviolet light that we can’t.
The research, by James, Asher and Herbor, pub- lished last year in the journal ‘Applied Animal Behaviour Science’, also revealed that UVB light supports synthesis of vi- tamin D, which increases bone strength.
In the study, 638 broiler chicks were randomly
assigned to one of three lighting treatments: UVA light only for 18 hours a day; UVA and UVB light for eight hours a day; or standard LED light with no UV wavelengths (con- trol).
The UVA plus UVB treatment needed to be limited to eight hours a day to avoid overexposing the birds to UVB.
Each treatment group was housed in a separ- ate room until 35 days old when the experiment ended.
Three measures were used to assess the welfare of each treatment group: feather condition, fearful- ness and walking ability.
The feather condition of each bird was assessed at 24 days old using a five- point scoring system.
A sample of 100 birds per treatment were tested for fearfulness at 29 days old, using the duration of tonic immobility after gentle restraint.
Walking ability was as- sessed for half the birds using a five-point scoring system at 31 days old.
The results suggest UVA and UVB light may offer welfare benefits to indoor- reared broilers.
The UVA plus UVB treatment led to improved walking ability and a ten- dency to be less fearful.
UVA reduced fearful- ness and improved walk- ing ability and feather condition in male broilers.
The conclusion: install- ing UV lights in broiler farms could improve the welfare of indoor-reared broiler chickens.
Shedding new light on perplexing production problems
Littleproud asks Charities Commission to revoke extreme activists’ charity status
MINISTER for Agri- culture David Little- proud will write to the Charities Commission asking it to consider revoking the charity status of animal rights group Aussie Farms.
The move follows Aus- sie Farms publishing online the addresses of hundreds of Australian farming families, and fears extremists could use that information to trespass or worse.
Minister Littleproud will also write to the Attorney General ask- ing for him to consider whether the Informa- tion Commissioner can investigate if the publi- cation of the addresses
online breaches privacy rights; whether the pur- pose or intent of pub- lishing the addresses is to encourage a breach of law; and seek advice on possible law reform to prevent this occurring in future.
“None of us would like it if our home address was put online,” Minister Littleproud said.
“Worse, these ad- dresses are being put up alongside information that has already been proven wrong in many cases.
“At one point these people had a picture of a pig in their deer section.
“The publication of home addresses of our
farming families is despicable and I won’t stand for it.
“These people don’t deserve charity status.
“We need to explore all options to see wheth- er the law has been bro- ken and if not, make sure this sort of thing can’t happen.
“This is the age of the internet and we need modern laws which deal with that.
“Australia is a free country – you can choose not to eat meat, you can oppose live- stock farming but it’s not OK to put the ad- dresses of farming fam- ilies including children online.”
POULTRY RENDERING

transportation from farm and processing services for spent birds from New South Wales, Southern Queensland and Victoria.
CONTACT
Jason Graham 0428 149 704
jason.graham@manildra.com.au
manildra.com.au @manildra
Page 4 – National Poultry Newspaper, February 2019
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