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Jeroen Van Rooijen presents Poster 79 during the poster sessions in the Aula.
Session theme 6: Free topics
ASSESSING DUST BATH QUALITY AT FARM LEVEL
J. van Rooijen
Retired, Churchillweg 37 c, 6707 JB Wageningen, The Netherlands
151
Poster 79
It is sometimes stated that in traditional systems male broiler breeders prevent females from dust
bathing. In a pilot experiment scan sampling revealed that hens frequently performed dust bath
behaviours on litter. The quality of dust baths of hens was investigated on a commercial farm, using
focal animal technique.
A camera was vertically attached to the ceiling of a litter/slatted floor system, at 2, 5 m above the
litter. The stable contained 4398 Cobb hens and 324 Cobb males, aged nine months. During 52
hours, over 13 days, video recordings were made. At maximum 12 hens bathed simultaneously
within camera reach. During baths hens often left this observation area. Therefore, only “complete
baths “ (baths that, within this observation area, were preceded by scratching behaviour and ended
with two minutes without bath behaviours) were analysed. The mean lipid percentage of 10
samples, each containing breast feathers of five randomly chosen hens, was established with the
NEN3443-method.
Almost 40% of the 38 observed “complete baths” were disturbed because of: a grain gift (6x),
general running, probably in reaction to sounds associated with the grain gift (5x), feather pecking
by a hen (2x), two fighting males (1x) and only one male copulatory attempt with the bathing hen
(1x). In 92% of the 38 baths all behaviour patterns belonging to phase I (“shaking in”) were
performed and in 71% of the baths the side rubbing behaviour, belonging to phase II (“rubbing”),
was noted. As expected, disturbed baths more often showed only phase I (75% of the disturbed
baths). The mean lipid percentage was normal (1.5%).
Our, preliminary, conclusion is that, although disturbances were common, broiler breeder hens may
frequently perform normal baths in a commercial traditional system. The developed method can
easily be applied to assess dust bath quality on other farms.
Contact information: Jeroen Van Rooijen or email jeroenvrooijenAkira@hotmail.com
Complete address: Churchillweg 37 c, 6707 JB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Species: Laying hen