Page 4 - National Poultry Newspaper

Do tough legs pass the taste test?
While white broiler chickens as far as the eye can see is what chicken meat production has become, the author would like to see it meaningfully moderated for the sake of chickens and consumers.
Activity all broils down to growth rates
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WITH my declared in- terest in and preference for slow-growing heritage breed meat chickens, I was intrigued to recently read of Canadian research that assessed inactivity levels in fast and slow- growing chickens.
mobility as assessed via latency-to-lie and obsta- cle tests, or health-related outcomes associated with different behaviours – particularly sitting and general inactivity – such as the incidence and se- verity of foot pad derma- titis or hock burn.
Cant
Comment
by BRENDON CANT
By way of another dec- laration, I came across the research in the January edi- tion of RSPCA’s Animal Welfare Science Update, a publication that summaris- es the most relevant scien- tific papers and reports on farm animals received by the RSPCA Australia of- fice in the previous quarter.
of the inactivity, behaviour, and enrichment use of fast- and slower growing broiler chickens, Poultry Science 100(12), 101451.
All strains of meat chick- en were inactive for most of the day (up to 80 per- cent) but at a young age, faster growing strains were more inactive compared to slower growing strains.
They said results sug- gested not all slower grow- ing strains were equal, nor were they all different from conventional strains.
I always find it an inter- esting and often enlighten- ing read, sometimes also delving into its coverage of companion and wild ani- mals.
The report title being ‘In pursuit of a better broiler: a comparison of the inactiv- ity, behaviour, and enrich- ment use of fast- and slower growingbroilerchickens’.
Slower growing strains stood and walked around and engaged with enrich- ment items more often compared to faster grow- ing strains.
As such, the use of any strain labelled slow grow- ing, without considering its specific growth rate, may not necessarily lead to im- proved welfare, at least not in terms of decreased inac- tivity, the performance of a full behavioural repertoire and an increased use of enrichments.
A n y w a y, t h e C a n a d i a n research I referenced above was published in Poultry Science last December, with author credits as Daw- son LC, Widowski TM, Liu Z et al (2021) In pursuit of a better broiler: a comparison
Here is the RSCPA’s un- edited summary of that research.
Elevated platforms were the most used enrichment item.
Despite the interesting suppositions and findings of this research, my very clear preference remains with slower growing herit- age breed meat chickens, rather than the white broil- er chickens bred and fed to grow so quickly their lit- tle legs struggle to support their big bodies, which host over-sized breasts.
Meat chickens (broilers) have been bred to grow and gain weight rapidly, which has caused concern for their health and wel- fare.
These results suggest that faster and slower growing meat chickens may use enrichment differently and that slower growth in meat chickens may improve ani- mal welfare outcomes.
Reaching over 2kg in just a few weeks, conventional fast-growing meat chickens may suffer from lameness, metabolic, muscle and bone diseases, and painful deformities.
Concluding their paper in Poultry Science, the researchers noted that fu- ture analyses would in- vestigate if and how these behaviours correlated with other outcome meas- ures of health and welfare, such as the performance of behaviours indicative of positive welfare (as an example, play behaviour),
While consumers have steadily been convinced for the past 50 years of the attractiveness of mass- produced, big-breasted, moderately priced, ‘For- mula One’ white broilers – I’m hoping a more dis- cerning possibly younger demographic will shift their thinking to embrace taste.
Consequently, meat chickens spend the major- ity of their time inactive, which can lead to other health and welfare issues including injuries and in- fections, and inability to engage in normal behav- iours such as walking, dustbathing, feeding and drinking.
Page 4 – National Poultry Newspaper, March 2022
Bird movements were continuously monitored using accelerometers at- tached to one randomly selected male and female bird per pen.
Tender skinless white breast meat in this $7 chicken rice dish is an author favourite at a nearby restaurant. Albeit, he conceded, it would be meat from a fast- growing white broiler chicken.
www.poultrynews.com.au
This study, conducted at a poultry research facil- ity in Canada, investigated inactivity in two conven- tional fast-growing meat chicken strains compared to 12 moderate and slow- growing strains.
All strains were raised in similar conditions and dif- ferent types of enrichment (elevated platforms, peck- ing stone, rope) were tested to see if they would affect inactivity.
Eight trials were con- ducted with 28 pens of 44 birds (22 male, 22 female) per pen.
Behaviours were ob- served including sitting, standing, walking, feeding, drinking, preening, pecking and leg stretching.