Beak trimming methods for laying hens: maintaining the performance and welfare improvement

• Grant number: 13/08332-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2013
• End date: June 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo de Albuquerque
• Grantee: Andréa de Britto Molino
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

There is a great deficiency of studies related to methods of beak trimming for laying hens, despite its great importance to the poultry production sector. There is also a growing global concern about the welfare of farm animals. Thus, the experiment will be carried out in order to seek methods of beak trimming that provide the best results regarding the performance and welfare of the birds at all stages of creation. In a completely randomized design, 840 chicks will be used during the growing period (0-6 weeks) in two treatments (manual moderate pecking and pecking infrared radiation) with ten replicates of 42 birds / each. In the growing phase (6-16 weeks), the birds will be distributed in a factorial 2 x 2 x 3 (two types of pecking made in creating; pecking the second two ages: 6 and 10 weeks, and three levels of pecking: no pass beak trimming, lightweight with cutting quarter measured from the tip of the nose and moderate to cut 1/3 of the nozzle measured from the nostril), totaling twelve treatments with five replicates of 14 birds / each. In the production phase (16-76 weeks) the birds will continue with the same design, but with seven replicates of ten chicks each. In phases creates and recreates, will be evaluated weight gain, feed consumption, uniformity, frequency of cannibalism, viability and long spout. In the production phase will be evaluated: age at first egg, feed intake, egg production, egg weight and egg mass, feed conversion, feasibility and internal and external quality of eggs. The results will be submitted to analysis of variance and comparison of averages will be performed by the Tukey test at 5% probability. Variables not normally distributed will be transformed [(x + 0.5) ^ 0.5] for application analysis.