Page 4 - National Poultry News

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In commercial chicken farming however, thou- sands of chicks are reared in batches.
“This means we could have a very powerful tool to help chicken welfare.
Why you should listen to your newly hatched chicks
EMERGING research suggests that ‘listen- ing’ to the sounds newly hatched chicks make can aid early detection of welfare issues.
mortality rate.
Professor in animal be-
“As an added benefit this study shows how we can measure chick calls automatically, meaning no extra work for farmers, but more information to help them improve chick- en welfare.”
require their attention and may ultimately improve welfare across the lifetime of the chick.
In nature, when dis- tressed and uncomfort- able with their surround- ings, chicks attract their mother with a loud and distinct stress call.
haviour informatics at Newcastle University and principal investigator Lu- cy Asher said, “By analys- ing the calls chicks make in their first few days of life, it seems we are able to predict weight gained and the number of deaths in the whole flock for the whole life.”
The researchers em- ployed a method that in- volved the ‘spectral en- tropy’ of the soundscape – a value that describes how sound can vary from a clear, tonal note up to white noise.
Reader in animal be- haviour at the University of Roehampton Dr Alan McElligott said: “The re- sults of this research show how useful vocalisations can be for monitoring welfare, and especially in an age when animal welfare needs should be central to progress in pre- cision livestock farming.”
In a study published by the Royal Society, a team of animal welfare and behaviour scientists from across the UK collected acoustic recordings in 12 typical flocks of 25,000 chicks.
“What is particularly useful is that this welfare indicator can be used ear- ly on in life, whereas most chicken welfare indicators are taken later in their life, when it is too late to make major improvements.
As increasing numbers of chicks call in unison, the usual background noise of the farm becomes overall more tonal.
The study involved re- searchers from the Uni- versity of Plymouth, Uni- versity of Roehampton, SRUC, and Newcastle University.
They found that these calls could be identified above other noises such as farm machinery and regular calling.
This ‘computationally simple’ way of counting distress calls could sig- nify to farmers that chicks
Findings are published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
$36 million for our agricultural communities – shows to go on
THE Australian Gov- ernment is spending $36 million to sup- port agricultural show societies in recover- ing from the effects of COVID-19, ensuring they can continue after the pandemic.
by COVID-19-related cancellations of agri- cultural shows.
The $36 million Sup- porting Agricultural Shows program com- prises three compo- nents:
Deputy Prime Minis- ter and Minister for In- frastructure, Transport and Regional Develop- ment Michael McCor- mack said the COV- ID-19 pandemic has hurt agricultural shows, with most expected to be cancelled for 2020 in the interest of public health and social dis- tancing measures.
“This funding sup- ports not only the big Royal Shows in each capital but right down to the small country shows because we ac- knowledge the role shows play in connect- ing agriculture and re- gional Australia to met- ropolitan Australians,” he said.
• $10 million in opera- tional support for local show societies. Shows will be able to claim up to $10,000 if their at- tendance last year was less than 2000, up to $15,000 if their attend- ance was between 2000 and 4999 and up to $70,000 if their attend- ance was over 5000.
“Agricultural shows are part of the fabric of regional Australia, showcasing everything positive about our com- munities and local in- dustries,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
“In addition, $100,000 will go towards sup- porting the Agricultural Shows Australia rural ambassador program, which will enable the vital community work the ambassadors per- form in regional Aus- tralia to continue.
• $100,000 in opera- tional support for Agri- cultural Shows Austral- ia’s Rural ambassador program.
“These shows are es- timated to contribute $1 billion to the economy each year and attract six million patrons annual- ly, supported by 50,000 volunteers.
“I encourage my state and territory counter- parts to also make a contribution to help agricultural shows survive the impact of COVID-19 because of the positive impact they have on their econo- mies.”
All agricultural shows that have cancelled their show in 2020 because of COVID-19 will be eligible and they will not have to compete for assistance.
“They create so- cial bonds and im- prove mental health in parts of regional Aus- tralia where distance, drought, bushfires and now COVID-19 have caused significant hard- ship and distress.”
This funding comple- ments the Australian Government’s existing $20 million Regional Agricultural Show Development Grants Program and will be provided under the $1 billion Relief and Re- covery Fund, which is supporting regions, communities and in- dustry sectors that have been disproportionately affected by the corona- virus crisis.
Eligible reimburse- ment costs are expected to include: bank fees, utilities, rates, insur- ance, fire alarms and equipment, cleaning supplies, telecommuni- cations, IT system li- censing costs, website costs, state/national show body affiliation fees and rent.
Minister for Agri- culture, Drought and Emergency Manage- ment David Littleproud said the Supporting Agricultural Shows program will provide a one-off reimbursement to agricultural show so- cieties to deal with cash flow pressures caused
For more information on the fund, visit regional.gov.au/ regional/programs/ covid-19-relief-and- recovery-fund.aspx
“There is a real risk if we don’t help that not only could Royal Shows cease to function the way they are now but also those small shows.
• $26 million in op- erational support for Royal Agricultural Show societies, which can additionally be used to claim for unrecov- erable costs associated with preparing for the cancelled show.
Where previous re- search had linked distress calling to stress and anx- iety-like states in chicks, this study shows it could predict flock-level behav- iour, future growth and
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Page 4 – National Poultry Newspaper, July 2020
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