Suitability of Slower Growing Commercial Turkey Strains for Organic Husbandry in Terms of Animal Welfare and Performance

Discriminant canonical analysis as a tool for genotype traceability testing based on turkey meat and carcass traits

The present study aims to develop a statistical tool for turkey breed traceability testing based on meat and carcass quality characteristics. To this end, a comprehensive meta-analysis was performed, collecting data from a total of 75 studies approaching meat and carcass attributes of 37 turkey strains and landraces since the late 1960s. A total of 22 meat and carcass traits were considered variables, grouped in the following clusters: carcass dressing traits, muscle fiber properties, pH, colorimetry, water-capacity traits, texture-related attributes, and nutritional composition of the meat. Once the multicollinearity analysis allowed the deletion of redundant variables, cold carcass weight, slaughter weight, muscle fiber diameter, sex-female, carcass/piece weight, meat redness, ashes, pH24, meat lightness, moisture, fat, and water-holding capacity showed explanatory properties in the discriminating analysis (p < 0.05). In addition, strong positive and negative correlations were found among those variables studied. Carcass traits were positively associated, particularly slaughter weight and cold carcass weight (+0.561). Among meat physical traits, pH showed positive correlations with drip loss (+0.490) and pH24 (+0.327), and water-holding capacity was positively associated with cholesterol (+0.434) and negatively associated with collagen (-0.398). According to nutritional traits, fat and ash showed a strong correlation (+0.595), and both were negatively associated with moisture (-0.375 and -0.498, respectively). Strong negative correlations were found as well between meat protein and fat (-0.460) and between collagen and cholesterol (-0.654). Finally, the Mahalanobis distance suggested a clustering pattern based on meat and carcass characteristics that report information about interbreeding and variety proximity. This study establishes a departure point in the development of a tool for breed traceability guaranteeing aimed at enhancing distinguished, local breed-based turkey meat.

Leg disorders in broiler chickens: a review of current knowledge

Ensuring improved leg health is an important prerequisite for broilers to achieve optimal production performance and welfare status. Broiler leg disease is characterized by leg muscle weakness, leg bone deformation, joint cysts, arthritis, femoral head necrosis, and other symptoms that result in lameness or paralysis. These conditions significantly affect movement, feeding and broiler growth performance. Nowadays, the high incidence of leg abnormalities in broiler chickens has become an important issue that hampers the development of broiler farming. Therefore, it is imperative to prevent leg diseases and improve the health of broiler legs. This review mainly discusses the current prevalence of broiler leg diseases and describes the risk factors, diagnosis, and prevention of leg diseases to provide a scientific basis for addressing broiler leg health problems.

Injurious pecking in organic turkey fattening-effects of husbandry and feeding on injuries and plumage damage of a slow- (Auburn) and a fast-growing (B.U.T.6) genotype

Injuries and plumage damage (PD) are important indicators of welfare. First priority in turkey fattening is to reduce injurious pecking, which includes aggressive pecking (agonistic behavior) and additionally severe feather pecking (SFP) and cannibalism with their multifactorial reasons. Still, there are few studies available evaluating different genotypes for their welfare status under organic conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of genotype and husbandry with 100% organic feeding (2 variants with different riboflavin content: V1 and V2) on injuries and PD. During rearing nonbeaktrimmed male turkeys of a slow- (Auburn, n = 256) and fast-growing (B.U.T.6, n = 128) genotype were kept in 2 indoor housing systems (without environmental enrichment (EE) = H1-, n = 144 and with EE = H2+, n = 240). During fattening 13 animals per pen of H2+ were relocated to a free-range system (H3 MS, n = 104). EE included pecking stones, elevated seating platforms and silage feeding. The study included five 4-wk feeding phases. At the end of each phase, injuries and PD were scored to assess animal welfare. Injury scores ranged from 0 (=no damage) to 3 (=severe damage) and PD from 0 to 4. Injurious pecking was observed from the 8th week onward (injuries: 16.5% and PD: 31.4%). Binary logistic regression models showed that both indicators were affected by genotype (each P < 0.001), husbandry (each P < 0.001), feeding (injuries P = 0.004; PD P = 0.003), and age (each P < 0.001). Auburn showed less injuries and PD than B.U.T.6. H1- had the fewest injuries and PD for Auburn animals compared to H2+ or H3 MS. In summary, the use of alternative genotypes (Auburn) in organic fattening improved welfare, but keeping them in free-range systems or in husbandry with EE, does not lead to a reduction of injurious pecking. Therefore, further studies are needed with more and changing enrichment materials, further management measures, changes in housing structure, and even more intensive animal care.

Welfare of domestic birds and rabbits transported in containers

This opinion, produced upon a request from the European Commission, focuses on transport of domestic birds and rabbits in containers (e.g. any crate, box, receptacle or other rigid structure used for the transport of animals, but not the means of transport itself). It describes and assesses current transport practices in the EU, based on data from literature, Member States and expert opinion. The species and categories of domestic birds assessed were mainly chickens for meat (broilers), end-of-lay hens and day-old chicks. They included to a lesser extent pullets, turkeys, ducks, geese, quails and game birds, due to limited scientific evidence. The opinion focuses on road transport to slaughterhouses or to production sites. For day-old chicks, air transport is also addressed. The relevant stages of transport considered are preparation, loading, journey, arrival and uncrating. Welfare consequences associated with current transport practices were identified for each stage. For loading and uncrating, the highly relevant welfare consequences identified are handling stress, injuries, restriction of movement and sensory overstimulation. For the journey and arrival, injuries, restriction of movement, sensory overstimulation, motion stress, heat stress, cold stress, prolonged hunger and prolonged thirst are identified as highly relevant. For each welfare consequence, animal-based measures (ABMs) and hazards were identified and assessed, and both preventive and corrective or mitigative measures proposed. Recommendations on quantitative criteria to prevent or mitigate welfare consequences are provided for microclimatic conditions, space allowances and journey times for all categories of animals, where scientific evidence and expert opinion support such outcomes.

The Prevalence of Integument Injuries and Associated Risk Factors Among Canadian Turkeys

Injurious pecking can cause a wide range of damage and is an important welfare and economic issue in turkey production. Aggressive pecking typically targets the head/neck (HN) area, and feather pecking typically targets the back/tail (BT) area; injuries in these separate areas could be used as a proxy for the level of aggressive and feather pecking in a flock. The objective of this study was to identify risk factors for integument injuries in Canadian turkey flocks. A survey containing a questionnaire about housing and management practices and a scoring guide was distributed to 500 turkey farmers across Canada. The farmer scored pecking injuries in two different body areas (HN and BT) on a 0-2 scale on a subset of birds within each flock. Multivariable logistic regression modeling was used to identify factors associated with the presence of HN and BT injuries. The prevalence of birds with integument injuries ranged widely between the flock subsets (HN = 0-40%, BT = 0-97%), however the mean prevalence was low (HN = 6%, BT = 10%). The presence of injuries for logistic regression was defined as flocks with an injury prevalence greater than the median level of injury prevalence in the dataset (3.3% HN and 6.6% BT). The final logistic regression model for HN injuries contained five variables: flock sex, flock age, number of daily inspections, number of different people during inspections, and picking up birds during inspections (N = 62, pR2 = 0.23, α = 0.05). The final logistic regression model for BT injuries contained six variables: flock sex, flock age, litter depth, litter condition, inspection duration, and use of hospital pens for sick/injured birds (N = 59, pR2 = 0.29, α = 0.05). Flock age, and to a lesser extent, sex was associated with both types of injuries. From a management perspective, aggressive pecking injuries appear to be influenced by variables related to human interaction, namely during inspections. On the other hand, the presence of feather pecking injuries, was associated with litter condition and other management factors like separating sick birds. Future research on injurious pecking in turkeys should focus on these aspects of housing and management to better describe the relationship between the identified variables and the prevalence and severity of these conditions.

Evaluation of Welfare in Commercial Turkey Flocks of Both Sexes Using the Transect Walk Method

The study was conducted between March and September 2019 in six meat-type turkey flocks with similar management standard procedures using the transect walk method. The concept of the method is based on visual observation of the birds while slowly walking across the entire farm in predetermined transects. Each flock was evaluated at three different times during the fattening cycle: at 3 to 4, 12 to 13, and 19 to 20 weeks of age, and total number of males and females that were immobile or lame, had visible head, vent, or back wounds, were small, featherless, dirty, or sick, had pendulous crop, or showed aggression toward birds or humans were recorded. At each visit, NH₃ and CO₂ were measured within the facilities. In the first assessment, the most frequently observed welfare indicators were small size (0.87%) and immobility (0.08%). Males showed a significantly higher prevalence of small size (p < 0.01), sickness (p < 0.05), and dirtiness (p < 0.1) compared to females. In the second assessment, the most common findings in both sexes were dirtiness (1.65%) and poor feather condition (1.06%), followed by immobility (0.28%). Males were significantly dirtier (p < 0.001), had more immobile birds (p < 0.01) and birds with vent wounds (p < 0.1), but had fewer sick birds (p < 0.05). In the last assessment, an increase in immobile, lame, sick, and dead birds was recorded, indicating an increase in health problems. Higher CO₂ (3000 and 4433 ppm) and NH₃ (40 and 27.6 ppm) values were noted only at the first assessment in two facilities. Further analyses showed that slightly elevated NH₃ and CO₂ levels did not influence the occurrence of welfare indicators. This study is the first description of the welfare of commercial turkey flocks in Slovenia.