Environmental enrichment strategies for improved welfare of experimental layer chickens housed in isolators

Abstract

The aim of this study was to reduce feather pecking in layer chickens kept in isolators for research purposes by inclusion of bunches of string and/or a sand box in a 49 day experiment in non beak trimmed SPF White Leghorn chickens. Inclusion of string from day 0 significantly reduced the incidence of feather pecking and skin injury and significantly improved (P < 0.001) feather coverage and feather condition score. Inclusion of a sand box from day 14 onwards did not significantly affect these variables although there was a trend for improvement in each case, particularly when combined with the presence of string. The inclusion of a sand box at day 0 warrants further investigation. We have shown that simple environmental enrichment within isolators can lead to a significant reduction in feather pecking behaviour and now routinely include string in our experiments.