Page 1 - National Poultry Newspaper

NATIONAL
Phone: 07 4697 3344 • Fax 07 4697 3532
www.stockyardindustries.com
Vol 5. No. 3 March 2022 National Poultry Newspaper PO Box 162 Wynnum 4178 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Email ben@collins.media
Chicks playing in a bucket and on a ball.
Rearing enrichment for free range chickens
THE CSIRO animal welfare team has shown that enriching the rear- ing environment of chicks makes for the improved behaviour, health and welfare of adult free range laying hens.
Measuring the effects of enrichments
Also measured were the behavioural and physio- logical responses to an en- vironmental stressor and conducted behavioural tests of fearfulness.
A discrepancy in the rearing environments of young and adult lay- ing hens
The enrichments were objects they had never seen before such as balls, buckets, ropes, strings, containers, plastic pipes, pet toys and children's toys.
The CSIRO research has shown that rearing envi- ronments can affect the lifetime behaviour, and health and welfare of free range laying hens.
The environment in which animals develop is critical for optimal life- time behaviour, health and welfare.
Also included were specialised cube-shaped perching structures with select opaque panels.
Providing an enriched rearing environment in- creases outside range use and improves some health and welfare measures.
Free range laying hens are reared inside but re- ceive access to an out- door ‘range’ as adults.
The enrichments were changed weekly over 16 weeks of rearing.
In addition, birds coped better with an environ- mental stressor after hav- ing been reared in an en- riched environment.
This discrepancy in environments between young and adult life stag- es may reduce the adapt- ability of adult hens to the outdoor ranging en- vironment.
When they became adults, their individual range use was measured via radio-frequency iden- tification technology that measured daily time spent out on the range area.
This research contribut- ed to the understanding of individual bird behaviour, health and welfare in free range systems, and rear- ing enrichments may be a strategy for optimising free range production sys- tems within Australia.
This may have behav- ioural, health and wel- fare consequences for the birds.
Periodic health and wel- fare measures were taken on all birds through until the later period of laying production.
The CSIRO conducted a study where it exposed 1400 laying hen chicks to different types of ‘enrich- ments’.
From playing to roam- ing
Poultry Hub Australia heats up
THINGS are heating up here at Poultry Hub Australia, with our first funding call well and truly underway and plans to finally run PoultryGrad in person in late July – so excit- ing!
future impact and fan- tastic justification of her project.
Keep an eye on our website for further de- tails.
We wish Carla all the best with her studies and look forward to hearing updates from her over the remaining years of her study.
I had the pleasure of attending the Australian Poultry Science Sympo- sium last month.
We hope you are all safe and well and en- courage you to reach out.
The team at APSS put on an excellent virtual conference – enabling some hi-tech ways of interacting with speak- ers, sponsors and col- leagues.
Carla was excited and humbled when awarded the prize, particularly as she had presented in the same session as Profes- sor Mingan Choct.
If you have an idea or would like to chat all things poultry, don’t hesitate to contact our office poultryhub@une. edu.au
I particularly enjoyed the session on sustain- ability – specifically the insights provided by Professor Richard Eckard from Melbourne University.
Carla Castro is a first- year PhD student at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at the Uni- versity of Queensland.
The judging commit- tee complimented her on a clear voice, excel- lent slide presentation,
His presentation gave a great overview and in- troduced tools that will be very useful when un- dertaking carbon calcu- lations.
Ms Castro began her scientific career in Chile before moving to the US and then to Aus- tralia, where she com- pleted her Masters and
The conference pro- gram was jam packed with exciting research and invited speakers, highlighting the talent- ed scientists our indus- try is so lucky to have.
Carla Castro working with her chickens while com- pleting her PhD at the University of Queensland.
There were great pres- entations illuminating advances in nutrition, welfare and antimicro- bial stewardship.
I was very impressed with the quality of pres- entations – in particular those of postgraduates.
Together with a team of senior scientists, we had the pleasure of awarding the annual Mingan Choct Award for best postgraduate presentation.
After much delibera-
Carla at the end of her session at APSS 2022.
by TAMSYN CROWLEY Director
tion and the calculat- ing of scores, the award was won by Ms Carla Castro of the University of Queensland for her presentation ‘Long-term consumption of soluble dietary fibre increases activation of the im- mune system in broilers chickens’.
is currently completing her PhD.
We are always look- ing for ways to support industry and farmers and would welcome any suggestions of how we can be of assistance.
He presented on how the poultry industry can become carbon neutral.
Supervised by Pro- fessor Eugeni Roura, Carla’s PhD project fo- cusses on dietary fibre and gut nutrient sensing in broiler chickens.
GET READY FOR A HOT AND DRY SUMMER
- RainMaker System
• Simple installation and maintenance
• Open system, water evenly distributed to the whole pad
• Cellulose Cool Cell Pads, provide high saturation efficiency
www.stockyardindustries.com
www.poultrynews.com.au