Is there social transmission of feather pecking in groups of laying hen chicks?

Zeltner, Esther; Klein, Toby; Huber-Eicher, B.

doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1453

Cited by 65 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…Indeed, reports show that individuals of several species housed next to others performing stereotypies increased their stereotypic activities (e.g. Zeltner et al, 2000). Our cork panels used to enrich the cage provided a dim zone at the rear of the cage where quail can rest, whereas the feeder was at the front of the cage and brightly lit.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental enrichment reduces behavioural alterations induced by chronic stress in Japanese quail

Laurence

Houdelier

Calandreau

et al. 2015

Animal

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Animals perceiving repeated aversive events can become chronically stressed. Chronic activation of the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis can have deleterious consequences on physiological parameters (e.g. BW, blood chemistry) and behaviour (e.g. emotional reactivity, stereotypies, cognition). Environmental enrichment (EE) can be a mean to reduce animal stress and to improve welfare. The aim of this study was first, to assess the effects of EE in battery cages on the behaviour of young Japanese quail and second, to evaluate the impact of EE on quail exposed to chronic stress. The experiment involved quail housed in EE cages and submitted or not to a chronic stress procedure (CSP) (EE cages, control quail: n = 16, CSP quail: n = 14) and quail housed in standard cages and exposed or not to the CSP (standard non-EE cages, control quail: n = 12, CSP quail: n = 16). Our procedure consisted of repeated aversive events (e.g. ventilators, delaying access to food, physical restraint, noise) presented two to five times per 24 h, randomly, for 15 days. During CSP, EE improved quail's welfare as their stereotypic pacing decreased and they rested more. CSP decreased exploration in all quail. After the end of CSP, quail presented increased emotional reactivity in emergence test. However, the effect of EE varied with test. Finally, chronic stress effects on comfort behaviours in the emergence test were alleviated by EE. These results indicate that EE can alleviate some aspects of behavioural alterations induced by CSP.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental enrichment reduces behavioural alterations induced by chronic stress in Japanese quail

Laurence

Houdelier

Calandreau

et al. 2015

Animal

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“…They may not only cause feather damage by pecking of group mates but also through stimulation of SFP in group mates (Zeltner et al, 2000;McAdie and Keeling, 2002). Hence, even a small proportion of EFP birds in a population may cause serious problems under practical production conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The presence of extreme feather peckers in groups of laying hens

Piepho

Lutz

Kjaer

et al. 2017

Animal

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Feather pecking is a serious economic and welfare problem in laying hens. Feather damage occurs mainly through severe feather pecking (SFP). Selection experiments have proved that this behavior is heritable and lines have been divergently selected for high (HFP) and low feather pecking (LFP). The number of bouts of SFP per hen follows a Poisson distribution with a maximum nearby 0. A few studies indicate that the distribution within flocks is not homogenous but contains sub-groups of birds showing extremely high levels of feather pecking (EFP). It was the aim of the current study to re-analyze data on SFP of lines selected for HFP/LFP and their F2 cross so as to uncover hidden sub-populations of EFP birds. Data of seven selection generations of HFP and LFP selection lines as well as their F2 cross have been used. We fitted a two-component mixture of Poisson distributions in order to separate the sub-group of EFP from the remaining birds. HFP and LFP lines differed mainly in mean bouts per bird. The proportion of EFP was only marginal in the LFP as compared with the HFP and the F2 population. Selection for LFP did not result in total elimination of EFP. The presence of even small proportions of EFP may play an important role in initiating outbreaks of feather pecking in large flocks. Further studies on feather pecking should pay special attention to the occurrence of EFP sub-groups.

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“…Of course, these situations might not have been sufficiently challenging for a difference to be detected; indeed none necessitate the same level of flexibility and adaptive behaviour that would be required in the wild, and perhaps thissurvival and reproductive fitness in the wild -would be the only true measure of behavioural dysfunction. Regardless, it seems unlikely that all cage stereotypies are mediated by general behavioural dysfunction; for example, some seem to continue because they provide effective substitutes for frustrated behaviours (see Mason and Latham, 2004), some appear to be socially transmitted (Palya and Zacny, 1980;Zeltner et al, 2000), and some, even well-developed stereotypies, cease immediately with the right treatment (e.g. McAfee et al, 2002)-something that would seem unlikely if stereotypic animals' abilities to control their behaviour are always fundamentally impaired.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stereotypy and perseverative responding in caged bears: further data and analyses

Vickery

Mason

2005

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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Stereotypies are common in captive animals; yet, their underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. One hypothesis [Garner, J.P., 1999. The aetiology of stereotypy in caged animals. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Oxford, UK] proposes them to be symptoms of altered behavioural organisation (behavioural disinhibition) mediated by striatal dysfunction, and thus, fundamentally analogous to the repetitive behaviours associated with human pathologies such as schizophrenia and autism, or induced in animals by stimulant drugs and striatal lesions. Consistent with this, we previously showed stereotypy frequency to be positively correlated with inappropriate responding during the extinction phase of learning, a measure of 'perseveration' consistent with striatal dysfunction, in caged bears [Vickery, S.S., Mason, G.J., 2003. Behavioral persistence in captive bears: implications for reintroduction. Ursus 14,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Here, adding new data, we strengthen this finding and look for further evidence of striatal involvement. Twenty-one bears of two species (Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) and Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus)) were taught a simple food rewarded spatial discrimination task. Home cage stereotypy levels ranged between 1 and 45% of all observations (S.E. = 2.75), and high and low stereotypy bears did not differ in the ease with which they learnt the task. However, when responses were no longer rewarded (i.e. food rewards were withheld), as predicted, the most stereotypic animals took the longest to extinguish responding. Contrary to some previous studies, however, further evidence of striatal involvement was limited: behavioural switching rates were not related to stereotypy frequency or to perseveration, and levels of normal activity were only weakly related to perseveration (a trend), leaving the mechanism underlying the relationship between stereotypy and perseveration in these animals unclear. Alter- native non-striatal explanations include natural individual variation in habit-formation, general behavioural persistence or compulsiveness and these possibilities require further investigation. #

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Is there social transmission of feather pecking in groups of laying hen chicks?

Cited by 65 publications

References 23 publications

Environmental enrichment reduces behavioural alterations induced by chronic stress in Japanese quail

Environmental enrichment reduces behavioural alterations induced by chronic stress in Japanese quail

The presence of extreme feather peckers in groups of laying hens

Stereotypy and perseverative responding in caged bears: further data and analyses

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