Injurious pecking in turkey hens under field conditions -- is it possible to keep turkey hens with intact beaks?

Keeping turkeys with intact beaks is a welfare goal but also one of the biggest challenges in conventional turkey farming in Germany. Beak trimming is commonly used in hatcheries in Germany to minimise serious injuries caused by pecking. In order to achieve this goal, cooperation of all stakeholders is necessary as promoted by the on-farm study MuD animal welfare project #Pute@Praxis. The aim was to reduce feather pecking and cannibalism by means of single elements such as straw bales, hay baskets, raised levels, metal mobiles, pecking stones, etc. The study was conducted on a total of six farms, four conventional farms and two alternative farms with turkey hens (25 flocks, 8 with beak trimmed, 18 with intact beaks). In the conventionally beak-intact flocks, the total losses during rearing and fattening averaged 6.3%, 1.5 times higher than in the beak-trimmed flocks with 4.35%. An analysis shows that the losses due to massive pecking injuries in the beak-intact flocks were 2.9 times higher than in the beak-trimmed flocks (2.6% vs. 0.91%) (Fig. 1). On the alternative farms, the average losses were 9.9%, where losses due to pecking tended to play a subordinate role. In general, animals had to be separated from the flock due to their injuries. In the beak-intact flocks, separation was, with an average of 14.7%, 2.7 times higher than in the beak-trimmed flocks, with 5.5%. In general, the effects and the frequency of separation in the beak-intact flocks were very individual and subject to large variability. The results show that injurious pecking cannot be prevented. Keeping turkeys with intact beaks is and remains a major challenge despite the intensive care and measures used. In addition to increased losses, a high separation effort and considerably more injuries in the flock along with the emotional burden for the farmers should not be underestimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]