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The experiment was carried out to examine the growth, behaviour, and welfare response of weaning pigs to environmental enrichment from d 1 to d 28 after weaning. A total of 240 weaning pigs with average initial body weight (BW) 6.56 ± 0.17 kg were randomly allotted to one of the four treatments on the basis of initial BW. A completely randomized design was used to conduct this study. There were ten pigs per pen, with 6 replicates for each treatment. The experimental treatments were control, EE-1 (inclusion of play object until one week after weaning), EE-2 (inclusion of play object until two weeks after weaning), and EE-4 (inclusion of play object until four weeks after weaning). The pigs raised the EE-2 and EE-4 treatments had greater average daily gain (p = 0.002). The average daily feed intake (p = 0.016) was increased in the EE-2 treatment in phase 1. The pigs in the EE-4 treatment had greater average daily gain (p = 0.039) and average daily feed intake (p = 0.030) in phase 2 than pigs raised in the control treatment, and overall (average daily gain: p = 0.006, average daily feed intake: p = 0.014). The pigs under enriched environment treatments (EE-2 and EE-4) decreased BW uniformity in phase 1 (p = 0.006) and phase 2 (p < 0.001) than pigs in the control treatment. The incidence of diarrhea was lowered (p < 0.001) in early phase 1 (d 7 after weaning) under environmental enrichment treatments (EE-2 and EE-4). Behaviour traits exhibited reduced agonistic behaviour, such as biting (p = 0.018), tail biting (p = 0.001), and ear biting (p = 0.016) under environmental enrichment treatments (EE-2 and EE-4) in phase 1. The skin lesion score was reduced (p = 0.015) in the EE-4 treatment in phase 1. Hair cortisol was reduced in the EE-4 treatment (p = 0.032) at the end of phase 2, however, there were no significant differences in salivary cortisol concentration. These findings demonstrated beneficial effects on growth, group uniformity, behaviour, incidence of diarrhea, skin lesions, and concentration of hair cortisol through exposure to environmental enrichment after weaning.

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In feed manufacturing, the need for an effective combination of ingredients to produce a complete feed for animals is well known. However, limited quantitative data illustrate the effect of low homogeneity on the performance of animals. This study was conducted to determine the coefficient of variation (CV) of feed mixtures produced with different mixing times and the effects of these feeds with varying homogeneity consumed by 1–40-day-old broilers on their feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion, mortality, and body weight uniformity. The mixing times used were 30, 60, 90, and 120 s, and the CV obtained from the feeds ranged from 49.5% to 5.4%. A linear decrease was observed in the feed CV with increasing mixing time, but sometimes, a longer mixing time did not present the lowest CV. The influence of the lack of feed homogeneity on the performance of broilers was mainly observed in body weight gain and, in some cases, in feed conversion. The effects on feed intake were more consistent for broilers older than 22 days, increasing body weight gain without affecting feed conversion. Our results suggest that feeds with CVs up to 22.6% had no adverse effects on the performance of broilers older than 12 days, and the lack of uniformity in broiler body weight was not influenced by feed homogeneity.

ABSTRACT: Genetic selection for increased growth rate in broilers makes feed restriction programs such as skip-a-day (SAD) feeding, for broiler breeders essential to managing body weight, flock uniformity, and reproductive performance. The objective of this experiment was to compare intestinal development, weight gain of breeder pullets, and reproductive performance (22–45 wk) when fed a high fiber diet (3.8% crude fiber) on either an every-day (ED) or SAD basis during rearing. The same developer ration and feed amounts were fed to both treatments. Day-old Ross 708 pullet chicks (n = 912) were randomly distributed into 4 floor pens (n = 228/pen, 2 pens/treatment). At 20 wk of age all birds were weighed, and the coefficient of variation (CV) and average body weight was calculated for each treatment. Birds were then distributed into 10 lay pens (n = 35 birds/pen, 5 pens/treatment) at 21.5 wk of age. Light was increased from 8 h to 15.25 h at move to the lay facility, and all birds were daily fed for the remainder of the study. Data were analyzed by SAS SLICE using a significance level of P ≤ 0.05. During lay, 25% of the birds from each treatment were weighed weekly to adjust feed and monitor body weight. At 21 wk the ED fed pullets were more uniform (P = 0.0007) than the SAD fed pullets. Eggs were collected daily and set for hatch every 4 wk from 28 to 42 wk of age. No significant difference in the hatch data were observed. The ED fed birds achieved first egg at 166 d of age while the SAD fed birds achieved first egg at 173 d of age. Specific gravity was measured every 2 wk from 30 to 40 wk, with ED reared birds having better overall eggshell quality (P = 0.02) and greater egg weight (P < 0.0001) than those fed SAD. Feeding a high fiber diet on an ED basis during rearing, improved body weight uniformity in rearing, encouraged early lay, improved eggshell quality and increased egg weight.

ABSTRACT: Dietary long chain polyunsaturated n-3 fatty acids (n-3 FA) may be beneficial to broiler breeder (BB) development. Therefore, the effects of feeding sources of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and α-linolenic acid (ALA) from hatch through to 22 weeks of age (woa) on growth, organ weight, and jejunal histomorphology were investigated. A total of 588-day-old Ross × Ross 708 BB were reared on one of 3 diets: 1) control, corn-soybean meal diet, 2) Control + 1% microalgae (DMA, Aurantichytrium limacinum), as a source of DHA and 3) Control + 2.50% co-extruded full fat flaxseed and pulse mixture (FFF, 1:1 wt/wt), as a source of ALA. Diets DMA and FFF had similar total n-3 and n-6: n-3 ratio. Diets were allocated to floor pens (28 birds/pen) to give 9 or 6 replicates per diet for control or DMA and FFF, respectively and fed according to breeder curve in 3 phases: starter (0–4 woa), grower (5–19 woa), and pre-breeder (20–22 woa). Individual body weight (BW) was taken weekly and 6 birds/pen necropsied at 5 and 12 woa for gastrointestinal, spleen, bursa, and liver weight and samples for jejunal histomorphology. There was no (P > 0.05) diet effect on growth by 20 woa. With exception of 5 woa, pullets fed DMA showed (P < 0.001) lower BW coefficient of variation (C.V.) than pullets fed control between 2 and 7 woa. However, pullets fed DMA had higher BW CV at 20 woa than birds fed either control or FFF. At 5 woa, birds fed DMA had taller (P ≤ 0.01) villi and deeper crypt than birds fed either control or FFF but VH or CD were similar (P > 0.05) between CON and FFF pullets. At 12 woa, birds fed FFF had taller VH than birds fed control diet but similar (P > 0.05) to that of birds fed DMA. Therefore, different responses to sources of omega-3 FA may implicate other components, however, the BW uniformity and intestinal histomorphology responses suggested benefits of feeding omega-3 FA during rearing.

We studied the influence of pen uniformity at weaning (7.5 ± 0.6 kg vs. 7.5 ± 1.2 kg body weight (BW ± SD)) and sex on growth performance during the nursery (7.5 to 27.3 kg BW) and the fattening (27.1 to 130.5 kg BW) phases and carcass quality of barrows and castrated females (CF). During the nursery phase, pigs from the more uniform pens had lower feed efficiency ( P = 0.05) than pigs from the less uniform pens. Also, barrows had higher average daily feed intake (ADFI) ( P < 0.05) and average daily gain ( P < 0.001) and better feed efficiency ( P < 0.001) than CF. During the fattening phase, initial pen uniformity did not affect growth performance of the pigs but barrows tended ( P = 0.08) to have higher ADFI and worse feed efficiency than CF. Trimmed primal cut yield tended to be higher for the more uniform pigs and better for barrows than for CF ( P = 0.09). It is concluded that regrouping of the pigs at weaning according to uniformity of BW did not affect growth performance or carcass quality of the pigs at slaughter. Castrated females might be used as an alternative to barrows for the production of carcasses destined to the dry-cured industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Knowledge of bird welfare and management on Swedish organic broiler farms is limited, since the number of farms began to increase only recently when two slower-growing hybrids became commercially available in Sweden. The aim of the study was to obtain information about chicken health and other welfare aspects, along with details of housing and management routines, in order to increase the knowledge and describe the current situation of these farms. Clinical examinations revealed no severe remarks, however minor to moderate plumage dirtiness, food pad dermatitis and hock burns were found in 47%, 21% and 13% of the birds, respectively. Higher body weights were significantly correlated to an increased prevalence of hock burns and dirty plumages. Although no severe walking impairments were observed, minor to moderate gait abnormalities were seen in almost two-thirds of all birds assessed. Gait in chickens assessed outdoors was significantly better than in those observed indoors. Flock body weight uniformity was low in all flocks. The study provides new knowledge of two slower-growing hybrids on Swedish organic farms. Further research should be focused on investigating other important aspects related to bird welfare, such as the low flock body weight uniformity and the high mortality rates observed. Slower-growing broilers on organic farms have replaced fast-growing hybrids to increase bird welfare. Due to limited knowledge of broiler welfare and management on organic farms in Sweden, the study aim was to gather information regarding health, housing and management routines, in order to describe the current situation on these. Farm visits performed in 2018 included 8 out of 12 established organic farms, on which either Rowan Ranger or HubbardJA57/HubbardJA87 were reared. Chickens in the observed flocks were 55 ± 6 (44–62) days of age. Observations included farmer interviews, indoor environment assessments, clinical examinations and gait scoring. Clinical examinations revealed no severe remarks, however minor to moderate plumage dirtiness, food pad dermatitis and hock burns were found in 47%, 21% and 13% of the birds, respectively. Although no severe walking impairments were observed, minor to moderate gait abnormalities were seen in two-thirds of the birds. Gait in birds assessed outdoors was significantly better than in birds observed indoors. Body weight uniformity was low in all flocks. This study provides increased knowledge of certain chicken health and welfare aspects, housing and management on Swedish organic farms. Future research should further investigate important aspects related to bird welfare, such as the high mortality rates observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]