5SBIZHBG

2617

5 janvier 2021 17:06

5 janvier 2021 17:06

In commercial free-range broiler (meat chicken) systems, many birds never leave the houses, making them ‘free-range’ in name only and suggesting that the environment provided is not preferred habitat. We investigated the factors that affect the numbers of birds ranging in 40 flocks, each of 20000 growing broiler chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus, in 14 houses on seven commercial farms and at three seasons of the year. The number of birds found to be ranging outside was positively correlated with the amount of tree cover the range area contained, the time of day and the season of the year. Few birds were seen ranging in the winter but even in summer, the maximum number observed outside during daylight hours at any one time was less than 15% of the total flock. We measured habitat preference of the chickens, using a statistical method previously used for wild birds, and argue that this ‘in situ’ measurement of habitat preference could be widely used in a variety of situations and that it thus constitutes an important noninvasive and nonintrusive method for assessing animal welfare on commercial farms. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

None

• AB - Utile à l'AB
• FREDO mode élevage, bien-être et qualité
• GEO Royaume-Uni
• volaille

Animal Behaviour

66

151-160

July 1, 2003

1 juillet 2003

10.1006/anbe.2003.2172 Le DOI est une URL unique de référencement d'une publication. Il est donc plus fiable et permanent qu'une URL classique

0003-3472 L’ISSN est un code de 8 chiffres servant à identifier les journaux, revues, magazines, périodiques de toute nature et sur tous supports, papier comme électronique.