Summary A greater knowledge of the effect of management factors is required to investigate the ontogeny of abnormal behaviour in the stabled horse. A postal survey of racehorse (flat) trainers yielded information about 22 yard and management factors. The relationship of the factors to the prevalence of abnormal behaviour was analysed by logistic regression. Management factors related to the time spent in the stable showed the strongest associations with stereotypic behaviour. The risk of horses performing abnormal behaviour increased: 1) as the amount of forage fell below 6.8 kg/day, 2) when bedding types other than straw were used, 3) when the total number of horses on the yard was fewer than 75, 4) in association with box designs that minimised contact between neighbouring horses, 5) when hay, rather than other types of forage, was used.

Summary Stereotypies are invariant and repetitive behaviour patterns that seemingly have no function, which tend to develop in captive animals faced with insoluble problems and may be indicative of reduced welfare. A 4 year prospective study of the factors influencing the development of stereotypic and redirected behaviours (abnormal behaviour) in a population of 225 young Thoroughbred and part‐Thoroughbred horses was conducted between 1995 and 1999. Abnormal behaviour affected 34.7% of the population. Multivariable analysis showed that foals of low‐ or middle‐ranking mares were less likely to develop abnormal behaviour than foals of dominant mares (rate ratio (RR) 0.23, P<0.01; RR 0.48, P<0.01, respectively). Weaning by confinement in a stable or barn was associated with an increased rate of development of abnormal behaviour, compared with paddock‐weaning (RR 2.19, P<0.05), and housing in barns, rather than at grass after weaning, was associated with a further increase (RR 2.54, P<0.01). Specific stereotypic and redirected behaviours were then considered as separate outcomes. Cribbiting was initiated by 10.5% of horses at median age 20 weeks, weaving by 4.6% of horses at median age 60 weeks, box‐walking by 2.3% of horses at median age 64 weeks and wood‐chewing by 30.3% of horses at median age 30 weeks. Wood‐chewing developed at a lower rate in horses born to subordinate or mid‐ranking mares than in horses born to dominant mares (RR 0.29, P<0.01; RR 0.41, P<0.01, respectively), and at a higher rate in horses kept in barns or stables rather than at grass after weaning (RR 4.49, P<0.001; RR 1.46, P<0.001, respectively). Feeding concentrates after weaning was associated with a 4‐fold increase in the rate of development of crib‐biting (RR 4.12, P = 0.02). The results of this study support the idea that simple changes in feeding, housing and weaning practices could substantially lower the incidence of abnormal behaviour in young horses.

The conditions under which laying hens are kept remain a major animal welfare concern. It is one of the most intensive forms of animal production and the number of animals involved is very high. Widespread public debate has stimulated the call for more animal friendly, alternative systems to barren conventional cages. Directive 1999/74/EC has encouraged technical changes in current systems. Not only have traditional cages been modified (so-called 'enriched cages'), but also new alternative systems (e.g. aviaries) have been developed. There is an ongoing need to evaluate the actual welfare status of hens in these novel systems including those on commercial farms. The LayWel project, was funded via the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme and national funding from several EU countries. Its general objective was to produce an evaluation of the welfare of laying hens in various systems, with special focus on enriched cages, and to disseminate the information in all member states of the EU and associated countries. The project took into account pathological, zootechnical, physiological and ethological aspects.A major achievement of the LayWel project was the compilation of a database collecting data from different housing systems and thus enabling data comparison. The project partners recommend that support is given to maintaining the database in the future so that data can be more reliably modelled. As the type of data collected did not often allow a formal statistical analysis the evaluation of welfare was a presentation of risk factors and advantages and disadvantages of various housing systems. Conclusions are that, with the exception of conventional cages, all systems have the potential to provide satisfactory welfare for laying hens. However this potential is not always realised in practice. Among the numerous explanations are management, climate, design, different responses by different genotypes and interacting effects. A second major achievement of the project was the development of feather scoring and integument (skin, head and feet) scoring systems together with comprehensive sets of photographs. It is recommended that the integument scoring systems are widely adopted and used in on-going research. Farms should also routinely and frequently carry out integument scoring to assist in the detection of damaging pecking, which is currently a widespread welfare problem. Within LayWel an on-farm auditing procedure was developed in the form of a manual for self-assessment. The manual first explains what is meant by welfare and outlines the relevance of welfare assessment. It also summarises risks to welfare in the main categories of housing system. The second part contains recording forms, with guidance for assessing hen welfare. These enable regular checks of a range of indicators of laying hen welfare to be carried out systematically. The indicators were chosen to be relevant to hen welfare as well as feasible and reliable to apply in practice. A series of conclusions and recommendations were made on v...

A majority of laying hens fracture their keel bones during the laying cycle. It is not easy for a farmer to identify hens with fractures and hen survival rate seems high. Thus, the effect of both recent and healed fractures on bird welfare is unclear. We aimed to investigate the impact of these keel-bone fractures on hens' production and behaviour. The egg production, mobility and behaviour of Lohmann Brown hens without keel fractures were compared with that of hens with old healed fractures of varying severity. In addition, the keelbone strength and body temperature around the fracture site was measured for each group. Hens with no fractures laid more eggs and had a higher egg-quality score (derived from measures of egg weight, egg surface area, shell weight, shell percentage and shell density). These hens had the highest keel area temperature, strongest keel bones, accessed perches more frequently and took a shorter time to negotiate a walkway obstacle test and to fly down from a raised perch. Hens without keel fractures were better in all investigated parameters than hens with keel fractures, indicating a detrimental effect of fractures on both welfare and economic return.

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