The contribution of environmental enrichment to sustainable poultry production

Abstract

Environmental enrichment comprises stimuli added to the poultry housing environment to enhance the biological adaptation of the birds and improve their welfare. By promoting species-typical behaviour, it has the potential to reduce the risk of harmful behaviours and health conditions, and to guide birds to use the available resources more uniformly. Environmental enrichment may also promote positive emotional states and enhance the birds’ ability to cope with unpredictable environmental changes. In this chapter, we review environmental enrichment strategies that are relevant to commercial meat poultry production, their benefits in terms of the behaviour and welfare of the birds and their potential for contributing to more efficient and sustainable production models. Potential risks or problems that may arise when environmental enrichment is not appropriately implemented are also discussed, finishing with discussion of current gaps in knowledge and concluding remarks.

On-farm broiler chicken welfare assessment using transect sampling reflects environmental inputs and production outcomes

“…We expected the transect data to be positively associated with increasing environmental complexity based on previous reports suggesting beneficial effects when providing platforms, peat and bales of foraging material alone or in combination [16, 23, 32]. Indeed, we found that the overall welfare problems index declined with increasing environmental complexity, accompanied by reduced mortality and fewer rejections at slaughter due to wounds, underweight birds and overall.…”

“…Environmental enrichment refers to additions and modifications to the housing environment that increase environmental complexity, stimulate species-specific behaviour and facilitate biological functioning, thereby improving animal welfare [14, 15]. Elevated resting surfaces such as perches, platforms and boxes can serve as environmental enrichment for broilers [16]. Use of such structures may strengthen muscles and joints and enhance the blood supply to the legs, wings and heart [17].…”

Enhancing their quality of life: environmental enrichment for poultry

“…Plus, we will review how environmental enrichment and modifications can stimulate active behavior in broilers and discuss which factors to consider when devising enrichment strategies to improve broiler chicken activity and behavior. 3) Environmental enrichment and its relationship with indicators of welfare, building on the reviews of Riber et al (2018) , Pedersen and Forkman (2019) , and Estevez and Newberry (2017) and providing an update on scientific literature regarding effects of environmental enrichment on various welfare indicators for broiler chickens. Finally, 4) a case study focusing on the application of enrichments in commercial broiler chicken production, presenting how a large-scale company has engaged producers to practically implement effective environmental enrichment strategies on-farm.…”

Welfare issues in poultry housing and management: broilers

“…Environmental enrichment has been defined as a modification of the environment in which the animals are kept, allowing the animals to perform more of their species-specific behavioural repertoire and thus accommodating a larger range of behavioural choices (Estevez and Newberry, 2017). Environmental enrichments may relate to specific behavioural requirements of chickens, for example, they may meet the need for elevated resting, or for exploration pecking, and sometimes combine these different functions.…”

“…The majority of broiler chickens, especially fast-growing breeds in conventional systems, are housed in relatively barren environments, and despite the increased number of scientific studies reporting potentially positive effects of environmental enrichment on broiler welfare, environmental enrichment is only applied on a limited scale in practice. One reason might be that farmers and integrations often think that environmental enrichment increases production costs and thus reduces economic competitiveness (Estevez and Newberry, 2017). However, this does not take into account potential benefits of environmental enrichment on broiler health.…”