An objective approach to understanding effects of keel bone fracture on the welfare of laying hens and providing solutions to reduce their occurrence and severity

• Unité de recherche: OSAV
• Numéro de projet: 2.15.05
• Titre du projet anglais: An objective approach to understanding effects of keel bone fracture on the welfare of laying hens and providing solutions to reduce their occurrence and severity

Mots-clé (Allemand)

Legehennen Tierschutz Brustbein Fraktur Beschleunigungssensor Mobilität Fitness

Mots-clé (Anglais)

Hen welfare keel bone fracture accelerometer mobility fitness

Description succincte (Allemand)

Brustbeinfrakturen stellen derzeit eines der grössten Tierschutzprobleme für die weltweite Eierproduktion dar. Die vorgeschlagene Untersuchung hat grundsätzlich zum Ziel, die Verbindung zwischen Brustbeinfrakturen und verringertem Wohlergehen der Hennen aufzuzeigen. Ausserdem soll die Bedeutung der Fortbewegung zwischen Sitzstangen als Ursache von Frakturen näher untersucht werden, um Alternativen für den Einbau in Volierensysteme zu entwickeln und damit Frakturen nachhaltig zu reduzieren.

Description succincte (Anglais)

Keel (breast) bone fractures in laying hens currently represent one of the greatest  welfare problems to commercial global egg production. The proposed work seeks to demonstrate the link between keel bone fractures and compromised welfare and determine the role that locomotion from/to perches plays in causing fractures while providing alternatives that can be built into aviary systems and reduce fractures sustainably.

Objectifs du projet (Anglais)

Our proposal is arranged with two primary aims:

1)     generating definitive and quantifiable information regarding the impact of fractures on laying hen welfare and

2)     providing the BLV and industry stakeholders with data-driven and objective solutions to reduce the frequency and severity of fractures by assessing the natural limitations and abilities of the animal.

Within these aims, the proposed work is based on three key, independent hypotheses which we intend to assess over the course of two separate experiments. The hypotheses, in relation to the aims described above, are:

1)       Keel bone fractures will have detrimental impacts on Animal Welfare as assessed by changes to :

a)     principal body functions, measured in terms of reproductive capacity and related egg production parameters

b)     behaviour, measured in terms of movement within the aviary and duration in key areas.

2)       The likelihood of keel bone fractures and associated impact energy during locomotion can be reduced via specific alterations to perch positioning, composition material, and exploitation of hens natural behaviors, e.g., wing-flapping, take-off position.

Publications / Résultats (Anglais)

Rufener, C.; Rentsch, A.K.; Stratmann, A.; Toscano, M.J. (2020) Perch positioning affects locomotion of laying hens and forces experienced at the keel bone. Animals,10: 1223 https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10071223

Baur, S.; Rufener, C.B.; Toscano, M.J.; Howard, J.; Geissbühler, U. (2020) Radiographic evaluation of keel bone damage in laying hens — Morphologic and Temporal Observations in a Longitudinal Study. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 7: 129. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.00129  

Armstrong, E.; Rufener, C.; Toscano, M.J.; Eastham, J.; Guy, J.; Sandilands, V.; Boswell, T.; and Smulders, T. (2020) Keel bone fractures induce a depressive-like state in laying hens? Scientific Reports, 10:1. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-59940-1

Rufener, C.; Abreu, Y.; Asher, L.; Berezowski, J.; Miguel Maximiano Sousa, F.; Stratmann, A.; Toscano, M.J. (2019) Keel bone fractures are associated with individual mobility of laying hens in aviary systems. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 217:48 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2019.05.007

Rentsch, A.K.; Rufener, C.B.; Spadavechia, C.; Stratmann, A.; Toscano, M.J. 2019. Laying hen’s mobility is impaired by keel bone fractures and does not improve with paracetamol treatment. 2019. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 216: 19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2019.04.015

Rufener, C. B.; Baur, S.D.; Stratmann, A.; Toscano, M.J. 2019. Keel bone fractures affect egg laying performance but not egg quality in laying hens housed in a commercial aviary system. Poultry Science, 98(4):1589. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey544

Rufener, C.; J. Berezowski, F.; Maximiano Sousa, Y.; Abreu, L. Asher.; Toscano, M.J. 2018. Finding hens in a haystack: Consistency of movement patterns within and across individual laying hens maintained in large groups. Scientific Reports, 8(1):12303.

Rufener, C.; Baur, S.; Stratmann, A.; Toscano, M.J. (2018) A Reliable Method to Assess Keel Bone Fractures in Laying Hens From Radiographs Using a Tagged Visual Analogue Scale. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 5:124. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00124

Candelotto, L.; Stratmann, A.; Gebhardt-Henrich, S.G.; Rufener, C.B.; van de Braak, T.; Toscano, M.J. (2017) Susceptibility to keel

Documents annexés

• 2.15.05 [PDF] 527 kB

Adresses URL (Allemand)

2.15.05 (j )Toscano Eine objektive Methode, um die Auswirkungen von Brustbeinfrakturen zu verstehen…