The Influence of Different Types of Environmental Enrichment on the Performance and Welfare of Broiler Chickens and the Possibilities of Real-Time Monitoring via a Farmer-Assistant System

Fabian Spieß, Bernd Reckels, Amr Abd-El Wahab, Marwa Fawzy Elmetwaly Ahmed, Christian Sürie, Monika Auerbach, Silke Rautenschlein, Ottmar Distl, Joerg Hartung and Christian Visscher
Additional contact information
Fabian Spieß: Institute for Animal Nutrition, University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover, Foundation, 30173 Hannover, Germany
Bernd Reckels: Institute for Animal Nutrition, University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover, Foundation, 30173 Hannover, Germany
Amr Abd-El Wahab: Department of Nutrition and Nutritional Deficiency Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt
Marwa Fawzy Elmetwaly Ahmed: Department of Hygiene and Zoonoses, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt
Christian Sürie: Farm for Education and Research Ruthe, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, 31157 Ruthe/Sarstedt, Germany
Monika Auerbach: Clinic for Poultry, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, 30559 Hannover, Germany
Silke Rautenschlein: Clinic for Poultry, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, 30559 Hannover, Germany
Ottmar Distl: Institute for Animal Breeding and Genetics, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, 30559 Hannover, Germany
Joerg Hartung: Institute of Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, 30625 Hannover, Germany
Christian Visscher: Institute for Animal Nutrition, University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover, Foundation, 30173 Hannover, Germany

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of environmental enrichment on the growth performance, litter and/or air quality as well as animal welfare indicators of broilers. Control groups (CG) and trial groups (TG) were housed under identical conditions during six fattening runs, with the TG having three types of environmental enrichment and a Farmer-Assistant System (FAS). A representative number of 50 birds were weighed and litter samples were taken at d 14, 21 and 28. Additionally, the same broilers were examined for foot pad dermatitis (FPD) on those days. The average bodyweight of the birds in the CG was significantly lower (1671 g) only at d 28 compared to TG (1704 g); at d 14, d 21 and d 33 at the slaughterhouse, no significant differences were observed. The dry matter content in the litter did not significantly differ between CG and TG. Birds housed in CG had significantly higher FPD scores at d 14 (1.24) and d 21 (2.19) compared to those housed in TG (0.73 and 1.52, respectively). No effects on air quality parameters, such as CO 2 and NH 3 , were seen between the groups. Overall, our study shows no negative influences of environmental enrichment on growth performance, litter and air quality.

Keywords: broiler; enrichment; animal welfare; foot pad health; performance; real-time monitoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5727/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5727/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5727-:d:811821

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().