Acknowledgements Book of abstracts - Publicaties - Vlaanderen.be

89
Poster 17
Margot Sprenger presents Poster 17 during the poster sessions in the Aula.
Session theme 1: Development, validation and automated measurements of indicators of animal welfare
MEASURING THIRST IN BROILER CHICKENS
M. Sprenger, F. Tuyttens
Animal Sciences, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Melle, Belgium
While freedom of thirst has long been considered as of paramount importance for animal welfare, a
feasible animal-based indicator to assess thirst on-farm or at-slaughter is not available.
The aim of this experiment is to develop a behavioural and physiological parameter to assess thirst
in broiler chickens. A total of 128 birds were randomly assigned to one of four treatments (0, 6, 12,
or 24 hours of water deprivation). After the deprivation period, water was offered to all groups in a
mobile drinker. Water consumption was measured after 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. To asses
whether familiarity with the drinker type influenced water consumption, the drinkers were placed in
the home pens of half of the groups one week before testing. Other behavioural and physiological
parameters measured were drinking behaviour, dry matter content of faeces and intestine content
and several blood parameters.
Data from the first replicate of this experiment show that with longer deprivation periods, water
consumption increased (18.8, 51.9, 100.2 and 148.6ml/animal/120 min for 0, 6, 12 and 24 hours of
deprivation respectively). Familiarity with drinker type influenced water consumption; birds that
were familiar with the drinker drunk more than birds unfamiliar with the drinker. This effect
appeared to decrease with increasing deprivation periods and with time during testing. For 12h and
6h deprived groups, unfamiliar birds started drinking later (after 30 min) than familiar birds (within
30 min).
These preliminary findings illustrate the potential of very simple animal-based measures such as
water consumption over time to assess thirst in chickens. For application on-farm, the influence of
familiarity with the test drinker ought to be taken into account and further validation tests are
warranted. The potential of the other behavioural and physiological measures for on-farm or atslaughter
assessment of thirst will also be discussed at the conference.
Contact information: Margot Sprenger or email margot.sprenger@ilvo.vlaanderen.be
Complete address: Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) Animal Sciences -
Animal Husbandry & Welfare, Scheldeweg 68, B-9090 Melle
Species: Broiler