The application of positive behavioural measures for commercial broiler production

Behavioural restriction is a key welfare challenge for the billions of broilers produced globally every year. Current measures of broiler welfare focus on biological functioning and negative health outcomes. There is a need for measures of positive behavioural outcomes to better understand and manage the welfare of commercial broilers. This thesis reviews previously applied behavioural assessments for broilers and investigates the application of two positive behavioural outcome measures in detail: Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA) and positive behaviour counts. I describe the first application of QBA by broiler producers and further explore whether applying QBA affects producers' attitudes to animal welfare, approach to behavioural observation, and ability to recognise positive behaviours. Broiler producers achieved good agreement in their judgement of behavioural expression from videos. Questionnaire results indicated there was no effect of applying QBA on attitudes towards animal welfare, nor how these producers approached behavioural observation. When exploring QBA as a novel training tool to accompany a video promoting positive behaviours, QBA was found to distract from the types of behaviours being performed, contrary to the video's training aims, but may have helped producers describe broiler behaviour. Producers consistently positively evaluated QBA in all investigations. Finally, in a commercial scale trial, QBA and positive behavioural counts were found to provide useful additional information, supplementing the current suite of welfare outcomes when differentiating between the welfare of birds reared in four different production systems. QBA provides a holistic assessment of the behavioural expression of commercial broilers while positive behavioural counts provide a tangible description of the behaviours being performed. The monitoring and reporting of positive behavioural measures creates an opportunity to shift the focus and emphasis of producers, and the wider chicken supply chain, away from provision of basic biological functioning and towards a 'good life'. Behavioural restriction is a key welfare challenge for the billions of broilers produced globally every year. Current measures of broiler welfare focus on biological functioning and negative health outcomes. There is a need for measures of positive behavioural outcomes to better understand and manage the welfare of commercial broilers. This thesis reviews previously applied behavioural assessments for broilers and investigates the application of two positive behavioural outcome measures in detail: Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA) and positive behaviour counts. I describe the first application of QBA by broiler producers and further explore whether applying QBA affects producers' attitudes to animal welfare, approach to behavioural observation, and ability to recognise positive behaviours. Broiler producers achieved good agreement in their judgement of behavioural expression from videos. Questionnaire results indicated there was no effect of applying QBA on attitudes towards animal welfare, nor how these producers approached behavioural observation. When exploring QBA as a novel training tool to accompany a video promoting positive behaviours, QBA was found to distract from the types of behaviours being performed, contrary to the video's training aims, but may have helped producers describe broiler behaviour. Producers consistently positively evaluated QBA in all investigations. Finally, in a commercial scale trial, QBA and positive behavioural counts were found to provide useful additional information, supplementing the current suite of welfare outcomes when differentiating between the welfare of birds reared in four different production systems. QBA provides a holistic assessment of the behavioural expression of commercial broilers while positive behavioural counts provide a tangible description of the behaviours being performed. The monitoring and reporting of positive behavioural measures creates an opportunity to shift the focus and emphasis of producers, and the wider chicken supply chain, away from provision of basic biological functioning and towards a 'good life'.