INTRODUCTION
Behavior is the best form of welfare evaluation for poultry (Duncan, 1988). Farm animals should be analyzed using behavioral approach based on cognitive psychology (Desire et al., 2002). Chicken behavior includes dust bathing and feeding on litters. The type of litter is used for determining whether chicks have been contaminated by feces and if the temperature and humidity are kept. Litters must be laid in sufficient depth with a suitable type and size. Types of litter such as feather and litter of broiler are mixed with droppings, which affects quality of health, quality of meat, and welfare (Mayne et al., 2007).
Contaminated type of litter can affect the growth rate and the quality of carcass (Bilgilli et al., 2009) due to health problems including bacteria in broiler affecting body weight and immune system (Toghyani et al., 2010). In addition, when chickens are come into contact with poor litter materials while standing or sitting, this can induce skin tumor on the chest area, soles of feet, and hock joints (Arogo et al., 2006).
Physiological studies on the type of litter (Atapattu et al., 2008; Torok et al., 2009) and behavioral studies (Toghyani et al., 2010) have been made, but we have few studies on Korean Hanhyup broiler. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the effects of two types of litter material - sawdust and rice husks and gender on the behavior characteristics and growth performance of the Korean Han- hyup broiler.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
1. Animals, Experimental Design, Feeding and Management
For this experiment, we raised 10-day-old chicks (n=416) for Korean Hanhyup broiler (HANHYUP No.3). The chicks were separated into 4 different pens. Twenty-five male and 28 female chicks were put on 2 pens of sawdust, and 2 pens of rice husks. Chicks were randomly assigned in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment and 4 treatment combination by type of litter and gender. All the walls of each pen were solid and 0.7 m high. Each pen had an overhead brooder and a circular free. The feeding trial started at d 10 and finished at d 70 of age for 60 days. The temperature and relative humidity were kept at 30℃ and 50%, respectively. According to the feeding standards (NIAS; National Institute of Animal Science, 2007) flocks were given a free access to the feed. For an 8-week period, chickens were kept under 16 hours of light per day (16L: 8D).
2. Behavioral Observations
We recorded behaviors for 12 consecutive hours from the 1st to the 8th weeks of age. To examine the Korean HANHYUP broiler’s behavior, we evaluated the time spent for standing, sitting, and walking and the frequency of drinking, feeding, preening, dust bathing, flapping, aggressive pecking, and pecking (Table 1). Overhead camera generated the top view of poultry. The top-view camera was placed at the height of 1.7 m, above the center of each pen. The CCTV camera captured the behavior images (IR LED Camera; APD7070V, Sony, Fig. 1).
Table 1. Behavioral classification of Korean Hanhyup broiler
Fig. 1. Analysis progress.
Two methods of time sampling were involved with mea- suring what is happening at particular moments (instantaneous sampling) or recording whether or not a given event has occurred within a given period (one zero) (Martin et al., 2007). chicken's behavior during the starter (1 to 4 weeks) and the finisher (5 to 8 weeks) periods was compared to see the changes in each behavior as the chickens matured.
3. Statistical Analysis
Our analysis was performed with SAS software (SAS, 2003) for independent sample T-test. Significant difference (P<0.05) was used to analyze the difference between types of litter (sawdust and rice husks) and gender (male and female). The probability value of 0.05 was considered as significant.
RESULT AND DISCCUSION
1. Effects of Type of Litter and Gender on Behavior
Table 2 and 3 are the summaries on the effects of types of litter and gender on behavior. The percentage of standing time was shown similarly in both early and late periods. In type of litter, males were analyzed to be higher in rice husks than the other, whereas females higher in sawdust than the other. In contrast to the standing behavior, sitting time appeared higher in sawdust than in males, whereas appeared higher in rice husks than in females. Sitting time means rest and inactivity, but the types of litter coming into contact with skin can cause disease in the parts of body being in contact with litter and this was worsened as a result of prolonged sitting time and indicates a low level of welfare (Shields et al., 2004).
Table 2. Effect of litter types and gender on behavioral using method of one zero (time budget) and instantaneous sampling (count) in the former period (1∼4 week)
SEM, Standard error of mean.
Table 3. Effect of litter types and gender on behavioral using method of one zero (time budget) and instantaneous sampling (count) in the later period (5∼8 week)
SEM, Standard error of mean.
In the early and late part of behavior (drinking, feeding, preening, dust bathing, and pecking flapping), there was no gender difference, but sawdust appeared higher than the rice husks in the effects of type of litter (Table 2 and 3). This was consistent with the findings reported by Song (1996) that the feeding behavior of males are 4 to 5 times faster than that of the females who spent longer time in feeding in one day. Feed efficiency and feed ratio were higher in males than in females (Marks, 1985). Most of the poultry rested after preening behavior. Preening behavior, which is a part of grooming behavior can be motivated by internal and external stimuli to maintain the body surface (Vezzoli et al., 2015). Therefore, in this experiment, the preening and dust bathing behaviors, which are a kind of resting behaviors are higher in sawdust than in rice husks.
Aggressive pecking and pecking occurred incrementally in the ‘rice husks’ pens compared to the ‘sawdust’ pens (P<0.05, Table 2). Much time was spent in walking in the ‘rice husks’ pens, but for some broilers, more sitting hour meant higher aggressive pecking behavior, which appeared more frequent in rice husks. Broilers increasingly performed many of their behaviors on the sand, but if only one type of litter was provided, they would perform those behaviors at a similar frequency on the sand or wood shavings (Song, 1996; Shields et al., 2004). Aggressive behavior means any pur posive action of organism toward another with the actual or potential result of harming, limiting, or depriving it (Hurnik et al., 1995). So the aggressive behavior appeared higher in males.
Therefore, the welfare showed an improvement in the ‘sawdust’ pens because active behavior was more compared to the ‘rice husks’ pens.
2. Effects of Litter Types and Gender on Growth Performance
Weight gain (WG) in stared during d10-25 was observed to be higher in rice husks than in sawdust (P<0.05, Table 4). WG during d26-40 and d56-70 appeared higher in sawdust than rice husks (P>0.05). WG in total tended to increase in sawdust higher than in rice husks (P<0.05). The effects of gender on weight gain (Table 4) appeared during d 10∼25 and the overall weight gain was higher in males than in females (P<0.05). According to Huang et al. (2009), at difference between rice husks and sawdust litter with the increased weight gain when using rice husks in the body weight gain differences. This was inconsistent with the results of our experiment. It is determined as a result of the difference in the characteristics between broilers and Korean Hanhyup broiler.
Table 4. Effect of litter type and gender on growth performance of Korean Hanhyup broiler
CONCLUSIONS
The authors conclude that welfare behavior (aggressive behavior) in sawdust was higher than rice husks. Therefore, sawdust is preferable for Korean HANHYUP broiler. From the results of this study, we conclude that welfare in broiler production is determined by the environment and considerations of gender and litter management. It would be necessary to perform the further researches in order to address the other possible aspects of the effects of type of litter on chickens.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was carried out with the support of “Coo- perative Research Program for Agriculture Science and Technology Development (Project No. PJ0144572019)” Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea, and Coo- perative. And this research was supported by the “RDA Research Associate Fellowship Program” of the National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Admini- stration, Republic of Korea.
참고문헌
- Arogo J, Westerman P, Heber A, Robarge W, Classen J 2006 Ammonia Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations. National Center for Manure and Animal Waste Management North Carolina State University Press.
- Atapattu NSBM, Senaratna D, Belpagodagamage UD 2008 Comparison of ammonia emission rates from three types of broiler litters. Poultry Sci 87(12):2436-2440. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps.2007-00320
- Bilgilli SF, Hess JB, Blake JP, Macklin KS, Saenmahayak B, Sibley JL 2009 Influence of bedding material on footpad dermatitis in broiler chickens. J Appl Poultry Rec 18(3):583-589. https://doi.org/10.3382/japr.2009-00023
- Desire L, Boissy A, Veissier I 2002 Emotions in farm animals: a new approach to animal welfare in applied ethology. Behav Processes 60(2):165-180. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-6357(02)00081-5
- Duncan I 1998 Behavior and behavioral needs. Poultry Sci 77(12):1766-1772. https://doi.org/10.1093/ps/77.12.1766
- Huang Y, Yoo JS, Kim HJ, Wang Y, Chen YJ, Cho JH, Kim IH 2009 Effect of bedding types and different nutrient densities on growth performance, visceral organ weight, and blood characteristics in broiler chickens. J Appl Poultry Rec 18(1):1-7. https://doi.org/10.3382/japr.2007-00069
- Hurnik JF, Webster AB, Siegel PB 1995 Dictionary of Farm Animal Behavior. Iowa State University Press, USA. Page 6.
- Marks HL 1985 Sexual dimorphism in early feed and water intake of broilers. Poultry Sci 64(3):425-428. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps.0640425
- Martin P, Bateson P 2007 Measuring Behavior. 3th. ed. Cambridge University Press, UK. Pages 61.
- Mayne RK, Else RW, Hocking PM 2007 High litter moisture alone is sufficient to cause footpad dermatitis in growing turkeys. J British Poultry Sci 48(5):538-545. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071660701573045
- NIAS (National Institute of Animal Science) 2007 Korean Feeding Standard for Broiler. Rural Development Administration Press. Pages 30-31.
- Shields S, Garner JP, Mench JA 2005 Effect of sand and wood-shavings bedding on the behavior of broiler chickens. J Poultry Sci 84(12):1816-1824. https://doi.org/10.1093/ps/84.12.1816
- Shields SJ, Garner JP, Mench JA 2004 Dustbathing by broiler chickens: a comparison of preference for four different substrates. J Animal Behavior Sci 87(1):69-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2004.01.003
- Song YH 1996 Interpretation of Farm Animal Behavior: Chapter 11 Behavior of Poultry. Seoul. E-Gong Press. Page 175.
- Toghyani M, Gheisari A, Modaresi M, Tabeidian SA, Toghyani M 2010 Effect of different litter material on performance and behavior of broiler chickens. Appl Animal Behaviour Sci 122(1):48-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2009.11.008
- Torok VA, Hughes RJ, Ophel-Keller K, Ali M, MacAlpine R 2009 Influence of different litter materials on cecal microbiota colonization in broiler chickens. Poultry Sci 88(12):2474-2481. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps.2008-00381
- Vezzoli G, Mullens BA, Mench JA 2015 Relationships between beak condition, preening behavior and ectoparasite infestation levels in laying hens. Poultry Sci 94(9):1997-2007. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pev171