Preventing injurious behaviour in pigs and poultry

The aim of the work package 3.3. is to gather and apply knowledge to help minimise or prevent two types of damaging behaviour seen on commercial farms: tail biting in pigs and feather pecking in poultry.

How does the stage of life at which substrate is provided affect development of tail biting in pigs?
A test has been developed for use under commercial conditions to measure how ready individual pigs are to chew at a tail-like object. The test involves presenting groups of pigs with a piece of board to which is attached one short length of rope (tail-like objects) per pig. The amount of time that each individual spends chewing at a rope is recorded. Results show that individuals differ in this behaviour, and that they are quite consistent across repeated testing. Because this chewing behaviour may be related to tail-biting behaviour, the aim is to use the test on young pigs and to observe whether it does predict which of these pigs go on to become tail-biters – if so, it could be used to identify potential ‘problem pigs’. This is being done as part of the main study investigating the effects of straw provision at different stages of life on the development of tail-biting. Straw is provided to pigs either from birth onwards, or from weaning onwards (about 4 weeks-of-age), or from the stage at which pigs enter the final housing on the farms (about 15 weeks-of-age), or not at all. The aim is to see at which time of life the provision of straw is most effective at preventing or minimising tail-biting. Data collection is due to finish at the end of 2006. Analysis will be carried out once all data have been collected.

Feather and vent pecking in laying hens
Feather and vent pecking in laying hens impose widespread threats to the welfare of poultry and, therefore, more knowledge on the relative importance of different risk factors, particularly during the important rearing period, is needed. Farmers can then adjust their practices to minimise the risks. A theoretical model of risk factors for feather and vent pecking based on literature and expert opinion has been developed. To test this model, 50 data sets, each consisting of data from one rearing unit and two subsequent laying units, will be analysed by using advanced multivariate statistics. Data will include measures of bodily state and mortality of hens, results from farmer-interviews, and parameters regarding the husbandry systems. On-farm data collection is still underway and will continue until the end of June 2006. Analysis is currently carried out and will be completed once all data have been collected.

Pecking preferences in chickens from layer lines divergently selected on feather pecking behaviour
It has been suggested that that feather-pecking chickens may be especially active or show an unusually high motivation to forage and to redirect foraging or other types of behaviour towards the feathers of other birds. Lines of chickens selected to show high feather pecking (HFP) and low feather pecking (LFP) have been developed to study possible characteristics that are linked to feather pecking. The first part of this study investigated foraging preferences in these lines. Using electronic transponders to detect where chickens are in a large group, chicken preferences and activity were recorded from 11–16 weeks of age. Preliminary results show that HFP chickens were more active, and also preferred straw and showed a decreased preference for peat relative to LFP chickens. This information may indicate which types of foraging material should be provided to minimise feather pecking

Prof Mike Mendl, Poppy Statham (University of Bristol, UK)
Prof Ute Knierim (University of Kassel, Germany)
Dr Knut Niebuhr (Veterinary University, Austria)
Dr Joergen Kjaer (Danish Institute for Agricultural Sciences, Denmark & Institute for Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry, Germany)

More information: mike.mendl@bris.ac.uk