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Incubation and hatching conditions of laying hen chicks explain a large part of the stress effects from commercial large-scale hatcheries.

ABSTRACT: In commercial egg production, laying hen chicks are exposed to several stressful events during incubation, hatching, and their first hours in life. We have previously shown that hatching and processing are associated with increased corticosterone concentration and further affect behavior and stress sensitivity in a short- as well as long-term perspective. However, it is not known whether these long-term stress effects are caused by the hatchery processing (sex sorting, vaccination, conveying, and loading for transport) or if they are mainly caused by potentially stressful events before processing, during incubation and hatching. In the present study, the aim was to assess the effects of incubation and hatching only, compared to stress effects from the entire hatchery processing. We compared Lohmann LSL chicks incubated, hatched, and processed in a commercial hatchery with chicks incubated and hatched at the same time but not further processed. We studied behavior in a novel arena and during tonic immobility, as well as weight development and corticosterone reaction during a stress challenge. Processed chicks had poorer weight development and were more active in the novel arena test. However, there were no significant differences between the groups in corticosterone reactivity or tonic immobility. When comparing with previous data, both groups had elevated corticosterone concentrations compared to what we had previously reported from chicks hatched under calm and non-stressful conditions. In conclusion, incubation and hatching alone caused long-term stress effects in chickens, but further processing exacerbated these effects to some extent.

SUBMITTER: Hedlund L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7772692 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Incubation and hatching conditions of laying hen chicks explain a large part of the stress effects from commercial large-scale hatcheries.

Hedlund Louise L Jensen Per P

Poultry science 20201010 1

In commercial egg production, laying hen chicks are exposed to several stressful events during incubation, hatching, and their first hours in life. We have previously shown that hatching and processing are associated with increased corticosterone concentration and further affect behavior and stress sensitivity in a short- as well as long-term perspective. However, it is not known whether these long-term stress effects are caused by the hatchery processing (sex sorting, vaccination, conveying, an ...[more]

PMID: 33357671

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Project description:The disinfection of commercial hatching eggs before incubation is a common strategy to reduce potential vertical transmission of bacterial and fungal infections from the eggshell to one-day-old chicks that may prevail in poultry products and eventually reach the end consumer. The present investigation focuses on the parallel testing and application of four different disinfection methods (conventional and alternative) under commercial hatchery conditions against natural eggshell bacterial contamination. Hatching eggs from two ROSS 308 broiler breeder flocks were selected and divided into six different groups: two groups were not disinfected and served as negative controls, and four were independently disinfected following product specifications and protocols. From each group, a sample of 100 hatching eggs was selected for bacterial re-isolation, utilizing a modified shell rinse method. Colony-forming units (cfu) from the shell rinse suspensions were determined and analyzed to establish cfu values for each tested egg. These values were analyzed to determine the bacterial disinfection capacity of the four disinfection methods under commercial hatchery conditions. The tested methods were hydrogen peroxide + alcohol, peracetic acid, low energy electron beam, and the gold standard in practice: formaldehyde. Among these methods, formaldehyde, peracetic acid, and low energy electron beam showed a significant difference when compared to the non-disinfected groups whereas hydrogen peroxide + alcohol did not. The bacterial disinfection capacity of the tested methods was compared as well to the gold standard method formaldehyde fumigation and only low energy electron beam achieved similar disinfection levels as formaldehyde. According to our data, three methods significantly reduce the bacterial load on the eggshell of hatching eggs under commercial hatching conditions, including potential alternative methods such as low energy electron beam that perform similar to the gold standard in practice.

Project description:Dual-purpose strains, with hens housed for egg laying and roosters kept for meat production are one alternative to the killing of male day-old chickens. However, dual-purpose hens seem to have additional advantages compared to conventional layers, for instance, a lower tendency to develop behavioral disorders, such as feather pecking and cannibalism. In the present study, three batches of about 1850 conventional layers (Lohmann Brown plus, LB+) and 1850 dual-purpose hens (Lohmann Dual, LD) each, all of them with untrimmed beaks, were observed during production (20-71 (56) weeks of life) in a semi-commercial aviary system. The aim was to investigate whether the hybrid and batch affected the occurrence of injurious pecking, and to identify a detailed time course of the damage caused by this behavior. Therefore, the hens' plumage and skin condition were assessed as an indicator by means of a visual scoring method. The LB+ hens had higher production performances and higher mortality rates compared to the LD hens. Plumage loss in the LB+ flocks started at 23 to 25 weeks of age, and deteriorated continuously. The LD hens showed only moderate feather loss on the head/neck region, which started at 34 to 41 weeks and remained almost constant until the end of the observations. Compared to feather loss, injuries occurred in the LB+ hens with a delay of several weeks, with a maximum of 8% to 12% of hens affected. In contrast, skin injuries were observed only sporadically in single LD hens. In all batches, hybrid had an effect on the occurrence of feather loss (p < 0.05). Within the LB+ strain, the proportions of hens affected by plumage loss and injuries differed among batches (p < 0.05), whereas this was not the case in the LD flocks. Thus, severe feather pecking and cannibalism seemed to occur in the conventional layer hybrids but not in the dual-purpose hens, though both genetic strains were raised and managed under the same semi-commercial conditions. Therefore, keeping dual-purpose hens should also be considered as an alternative approach to avoid injurious pecking in laying hen husbandry.

Dataset Information

Incubation and hatching conditions of laying hen chicks explain a large part of the stress effects from commercial large-scale hatcheries.

Publications

Incubation and hatching conditions of laying hen chicks explain a large part of the stress effects from commercial large-scale hatcheries.

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