ADP30306 HEALTH, WELFARE AND MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
LECTURE 1: ADAPTIVE CAPACITY – BAS KEMP
Environmental factors to adapt to:
- Climate:
- Housing system
- Pathogens
- Interactions with other animals and humans
In general, you have to adapt to all kinds of various systems, various challenges, and actually, when its
not bad, we all have thermal regulatory systems to cope with that. For instance, we have a thermal
regulatory systems, and our body can stay okay when it’s hot or it’s cold.
→ BUT these reactions are not infinite.
→ Every regulatory system that we have in our bodies has borders.
How to balance adaptive capacity with the challenges?
1. Change the adaptive capacity of an animal (green) → try to make him in
a such way that he can survive in this relative, strange environment.
• Genetic selection
• Prenatal effects (via the mother)
• Perinatal and early postnatal
All quite early in life; you can relatively shape the adaptive capacity of an animal.
2. Make sure that the challenges are not outside the range of the adaptive capacity (yellow) →
facilitate adaptive capacity.
→ Resources and opportunity to provide the ‘right’ environment
Overview of different methods (selection, development, facilitation) to improve adaptive capacity of
animals. In early life, you have the best possibility to supply supportive environments and facilitate
adaptive capacity.
Examples change of the adaptive capacity
Genetic selection:
Natural antibodies (nabs) are antibodies in plasma that are not a result of specific antigen exposure.
Broad affinity to bind antigens and act as fist line defence. You can measure the pools of natural
antibodies. You can put an antigen into the blood stream and measure how many of the antibodies that
are floating around binding to that antigen.
,For example: KLH: Keyhole Limpet Hemacyanin, it is a unique antigen. Some animals binding that
antigen, some have a lot of binding and some have low levels binding from the antibodies. You can select
the highest animals in terms of the amount of natural antibodies. (The animals with high levels had a
higher survival when given e. coli.) so selection for KLH results in better adaptive capacity against a
disease challenge.
Prenatal effects:
For example, Pigs (mothers) were housed in two housing systems. Group 1: stalls and group 2: group
housing system. The group-housed pigs had better welfare. They injected the babies LPS for a fever
reaction. Animals which were kept in stalls recovered less fast from inflammation than babies from pigs
from group housing systems. (off spring)
Other example: study prenatal effects in chickens. High temperature during late incubation resulted in
lower yolk-free body mass (YFBM), smaller heart muscle (%), and higher mortality %. (Best temperature
37,8 degrees and the studied temperature was 38,9 degrees).
Perinatal and postnatal effects: F.e., perinatal flavour learning to reduce weaning problems in piglets.
Flavours maternal diet → exposure piglets in utero → flavour recognition → preference flavour higher →
food neophobia lower → lower stress → higher feed intake at weaning → growth higher, diarrhoea lower,
damaging behaviors lower.
Other example, early life onset of feed intake in chicks: delayed onset of eating (to 72h after hatch)
results in long term effects on gut development and immune responsiveness. In this example, they put
USAP in the chicks, a strange antibody. The chicks early fed produced more antigens against it then the
late fed. They produced double amount of antigens.
From science to innovation
- Patio, vencometic → on-ferm hatching and direct access to food and water
- Hatchcare, hatchtech → fall on the ground when they come out of egg.
Example facilitate of the adaptive capacity
Resources and opportunities to provide the right environment
For example, preventing a Negative Energy Balance. In early lactation, there goes more energy to milk
than they consume with food. They lose energy. So the idea is: can we prevent the NEB? In a study, they
removed the dry period. No dry period → no NEB. However, you would lose milk, but you can keep on
milking this cow 6 weeks before calving.
For example, social support. Interspecific or conspecific bonding affect stress reacivity in pigs. Girl
played every day with a pig. Then she separated the pig. The girl who played with the pig and the sister pig
were equally effective reducing stress level during incubation.
For instance, young piglets have to learn to eat solid food. And they are used to drink when they are born.
So they have to make a transition from milk to food. You can provide a supportive environment on piglets
- Stimulatory effects of sow: learning from the mom
- Stimulatory effects from environment:
o Environmental enrichment
o Big pellets for small piglets (make them smaller)
o Diversity in feed items
o A play feeder
o a study where sows were housed in group systems during lactation. So all the piglets were
together.
,LECTURE 2: SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN LAYING HENS – BAS RODENBURG
Chickens are social animals. Chickens in the wild: The domestic chicken originates from jungle fowl.
- Domestication started 8000 years ago: ornamental and fighting birds
- Since 1000-2000 years kept for eggs and meat
- Last 70-80 years intensive selection on productive traits (after WWII)
Red Jungle Fowl (RJF) is the ancestor of the domestic chicken. Lives in the jungle (trees, shrubs, open
areas) live in small groups. 1 male with 6-7 hens and their offspring.
Behaviour pattern (they are very active during daylight periods)
- Exploring environment by walking, packing, scratching → foraging behaviour
- Also keeping watch, keeping safe, warning about predators
Behavioural synchronisation
- Environmental and social pressures that favour group living (protection from predators, increased
change of resource discovery (food))
- Induces synchrony (a shared threat, rest or hide together, escape. Also with new food source, they
have to be quick before it runs out)
Behavioural facilitation
- Observe a conspecific performing a behaviour and replicate or follow the behaviour
o Food pecking: pecking rate
o Drinking: swallowing rate
o Dust bathing: presence of other birds (familiar of unfamiliar)
Maternal behaviour (study food preferences hens raising their own chicks)
Hens were trained with two different foods: palatable and unpalatable. The red had a bitter taste that the
birds didn’t appreciate. In a way they transferred this information to the offspring. In case of chicks, the
taste of red and green was exactly the same. But mother could still see difference in colour. → then
scientists noticed that when the chicks started eating red food, the mother showed more ground packing,
scratching to attract the chicks away from the red food towards the green food.
→ so, mothers are really aware and transfer this information to offspring.
Does it matter who’s in the group?
- Evolutionary: beneficial to help own kin (increased fitness)
- Pair housing in cages: greater synchrony within pairs from the same family than between pairs
→ they saw it in feeding, head shaking, resting, sitting, standing, preening behaviour
Clustering: social or resource-driven?
Small groups of familiar hens (so are clusters of birds influenced by social preferences or is it more linked
to presence of specific resources? (the nest, drinker, feeder at a given time of day))
- Shared resource preference more important than social attraction (so for instance time period when
feeder was preferred, was more important than always staying in the same group)
- Social attraction is a complex topic: age, familiarity, fearfulness, space allowance play a role.
Role of groups size (keeling et al 2017)
, - Groups of 15, 30, 60 and 120 hens
- Housed at same stocking density (same number of birds per m2)
- They studied behaviour synchrony and spatial clustering
What they saw: is that synchronization strongly decreased with increasing the group size. So synchrony is
mainly visible and important in the smaller group sizes. Also some differences in behaviours (preening is
very synchronised). In larger groups, you see less social clustering. Birds use the feeder at different
times. In small groups, birds use the resources together and have a strong sense of performing different
activities together.
→ group size has a clear effect on social clustering and behavioural synchrony.
Group size and social behaviour:
- Preening was the most synchronised behaviour
- Feeding behaviour was the most clustered in space
- Synchrony and clustering seems more relevant in small groups than in large groups
- More important to consider resources in furnished cages than in non-cage systems.
EU housing systems
- Traditional battery cage banned in the EU from 2012
- Only furnished cages and non cage systems allowed
o Early type of furnished cage: include litter box, nest box, perch and scratching area. Now
larger groups (20-60 birds vs 4 birds)
▪ Challenge: still not possible to give litter. They cant pack or scratch. Limited space.
o In NL case free systems are most common (floor housing system (one level) and aviary
system (in NL most common, more levels))
▪ More space than cages. Perches, nests and large scratching area. Kept in large sizes
(5000 – 30.000 birds)
▪ Challenges: with large group size it is difficult to control social problems
• Feather pecking
• panic reactions
• piling/smothering → when birds aggregate and they sit together sometimes they suffocate
the birds on bottom.
• Aggression? No dominance packing. That’s more in smaller groups.
LECTURE 1: ADAPTIVE CAPACITY – BAS KEMP
Environmental factors to adapt to:
- Climate:
- Housing system
- Pathogens
- Interactions with other animals and humans
In general, you have to adapt to all kinds of various systems, various challenges, and actually, when its
not bad, we all have thermal regulatory systems to cope with that. For instance, we have a thermal
regulatory systems, and our body can stay okay when it’s hot or it’s cold.
→ BUT these reactions are not infinite.
→ Every regulatory system that we have in our bodies has borders.
How to balance adaptive capacity with the challenges?
1. Change the adaptive capacity of an animal (green) → try to make him in
a such way that he can survive in this relative, strange environment.
• Genetic selection
• Prenatal effects (via the mother)
• Perinatal and early postnatal
All quite early in life; you can relatively shape the adaptive capacity of an animal.
2. Make sure that the challenges are not outside the range of the adaptive capacity (yellow) →
facilitate adaptive capacity.
→ Resources and opportunity to provide the ‘right’ environment
Overview of different methods (selection, development, facilitation) to improve adaptive capacity of
animals. In early life, you have the best possibility to supply supportive environments and facilitate
adaptive capacity.
Examples change of the adaptive capacity
Genetic selection:
Natural antibodies (nabs) are antibodies in plasma that are not a result of specific antigen exposure.
Broad affinity to bind antigens and act as fist line defence. You can measure the pools of natural
antibodies. You can put an antigen into the blood stream and measure how many of the antibodies that
are floating around binding to that antigen.
,For example: KLH: Keyhole Limpet Hemacyanin, it is a unique antigen. Some animals binding that
antigen, some have a lot of binding and some have low levels binding from the antibodies. You can select
the highest animals in terms of the amount of natural antibodies. (The animals with high levels had a
higher survival when given e. coli.) so selection for KLH results in better adaptive capacity against a
disease challenge.
Prenatal effects:
For example, Pigs (mothers) were housed in two housing systems. Group 1: stalls and group 2: group
housing system. The group-housed pigs had better welfare. They injected the babies LPS for a fever
reaction. Animals which were kept in stalls recovered less fast from inflammation than babies from pigs
from group housing systems. (off spring)
Other example: study prenatal effects in chickens. High temperature during late incubation resulted in
lower yolk-free body mass (YFBM), smaller heart muscle (%), and higher mortality %. (Best temperature
37,8 degrees and the studied temperature was 38,9 degrees).
Perinatal and postnatal effects: F.e., perinatal flavour learning to reduce weaning problems in piglets.
Flavours maternal diet → exposure piglets in utero → flavour recognition → preference flavour higher →
food neophobia lower → lower stress → higher feed intake at weaning → growth higher, diarrhoea lower,
damaging behaviors lower.
Other example, early life onset of feed intake in chicks: delayed onset of eating (to 72h after hatch)
results in long term effects on gut development and immune responsiveness. In this example, they put
USAP in the chicks, a strange antibody. The chicks early fed produced more antigens against it then the
late fed. They produced double amount of antigens.
From science to innovation
- Patio, vencometic → on-ferm hatching and direct access to food and water
- Hatchcare, hatchtech → fall on the ground when they come out of egg.
Example facilitate of the adaptive capacity
Resources and opportunities to provide the right environment
For example, preventing a Negative Energy Balance. In early lactation, there goes more energy to milk
than they consume with food. They lose energy. So the idea is: can we prevent the NEB? In a study, they
removed the dry period. No dry period → no NEB. However, you would lose milk, but you can keep on
milking this cow 6 weeks before calving.
For example, social support. Interspecific or conspecific bonding affect stress reacivity in pigs. Girl
played every day with a pig. Then she separated the pig. The girl who played with the pig and the sister pig
were equally effective reducing stress level during incubation.
For instance, young piglets have to learn to eat solid food. And they are used to drink when they are born.
So they have to make a transition from milk to food. You can provide a supportive environment on piglets
- Stimulatory effects of sow: learning from the mom
- Stimulatory effects from environment:
o Environmental enrichment
o Big pellets for small piglets (make them smaller)
o Diversity in feed items
o A play feeder
o a study where sows were housed in group systems during lactation. So all the piglets were
together.
,LECTURE 2: SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN LAYING HENS – BAS RODENBURG
Chickens are social animals. Chickens in the wild: The domestic chicken originates from jungle fowl.
- Domestication started 8000 years ago: ornamental and fighting birds
- Since 1000-2000 years kept for eggs and meat
- Last 70-80 years intensive selection on productive traits (after WWII)
Red Jungle Fowl (RJF) is the ancestor of the domestic chicken. Lives in the jungle (trees, shrubs, open
areas) live in small groups. 1 male with 6-7 hens and their offspring.
Behaviour pattern (they are very active during daylight periods)
- Exploring environment by walking, packing, scratching → foraging behaviour
- Also keeping watch, keeping safe, warning about predators
Behavioural synchronisation
- Environmental and social pressures that favour group living (protection from predators, increased
change of resource discovery (food))
- Induces synchrony (a shared threat, rest or hide together, escape. Also with new food source, they
have to be quick before it runs out)
Behavioural facilitation
- Observe a conspecific performing a behaviour and replicate or follow the behaviour
o Food pecking: pecking rate
o Drinking: swallowing rate
o Dust bathing: presence of other birds (familiar of unfamiliar)
Maternal behaviour (study food preferences hens raising their own chicks)
Hens were trained with two different foods: palatable and unpalatable. The red had a bitter taste that the
birds didn’t appreciate. In a way they transferred this information to the offspring. In case of chicks, the
taste of red and green was exactly the same. But mother could still see difference in colour. → then
scientists noticed that when the chicks started eating red food, the mother showed more ground packing,
scratching to attract the chicks away from the red food towards the green food.
→ so, mothers are really aware and transfer this information to offspring.
Does it matter who’s in the group?
- Evolutionary: beneficial to help own kin (increased fitness)
- Pair housing in cages: greater synchrony within pairs from the same family than between pairs
→ they saw it in feeding, head shaking, resting, sitting, standing, preening behaviour
Clustering: social or resource-driven?
Small groups of familiar hens (so are clusters of birds influenced by social preferences or is it more linked
to presence of specific resources? (the nest, drinker, feeder at a given time of day))
- Shared resource preference more important than social attraction (so for instance time period when
feeder was preferred, was more important than always staying in the same group)
- Social attraction is a complex topic: age, familiarity, fearfulness, space allowance play a role.
Role of groups size (keeling et al 2017)
, - Groups of 15, 30, 60 and 120 hens
- Housed at same stocking density (same number of birds per m2)
- They studied behaviour synchrony and spatial clustering
What they saw: is that synchronization strongly decreased with increasing the group size. So synchrony is
mainly visible and important in the smaller group sizes. Also some differences in behaviours (preening is
very synchronised). In larger groups, you see less social clustering. Birds use the feeder at different
times. In small groups, birds use the resources together and have a strong sense of performing different
activities together.
→ group size has a clear effect on social clustering and behavioural synchrony.
Group size and social behaviour:
- Preening was the most synchronised behaviour
- Feeding behaviour was the most clustered in space
- Synchrony and clustering seems more relevant in small groups than in large groups
- More important to consider resources in furnished cages than in non-cage systems.
EU housing systems
- Traditional battery cage banned in the EU from 2012
- Only furnished cages and non cage systems allowed
o Early type of furnished cage: include litter box, nest box, perch and scratching area. Now
larger groups (20-60 birds vs 4 birds)
▪ Challenge: still not possible to give litter. They cant pack or scratch. Limited space.
o In NL case free systems are most common (floor housing system (one level) and aviary
system (in NL most common, more levels))
▪ More space than cages. Perches, nests and large scratching area. Kept in large sizes
(5000 – 30.000 birds)
▪ Challenges: with large group size it is difficult to control social problems
• Feather pecking
• panic reactions
• piling/smothering → when birds aggregate and they sit together sometimes they suffocate
the birds on bottom.
• Aggression? No dominance packing. That’s more in smaller groups.
