Modeling collisions in laying hens as a tool to identify causative factors for keel bone fractures and means to reduce their occurrence and severity

Toscano, Michael Jeffrey; Booth, Francesca; Richards, Gemma; Brown, Steven; Karcher, Darrin; Tarlton, John (2018). Modeling collisions in laying hens as a tool to identify causative factors for keel bone fractures and means to reduce their occurrence and severity. PLoS ONE, 13(7), e0200025. Public Library of Science 10.1371/journal.pone.0200025

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Keel fractures represent a major productivity and welfare issue for the laying hen industry with greater than 50% of birds in recent surveys across various commercial operations and nations exhibiting some form of damage by end of lay. While the causes are likely multifactorial and influenced by age, diet, genetic line, and other factors, high energy collisions with house furnishings and conspecifics in the barn are believed to be a major contribution to the frequency and severity of factures. The current study applies a previously described ex vivo impact testing protocol to quantify susceptibility to keel bone damage across an extensive range of collision energies and ages. We also link fracture susceptibility with bone and physiological measures likely to influence skeletal resilience. Further, we applied the impact testing protocol to evaluate the benefit of an omega-3 enriched diet to improve bone health and reduce fracture susceptibility. Our results indicated that fracture susceptibility increased rapidly from 23 weeks of age, peaking at 49.5 weeks of age and thereafter decreasing. Fracture susceptibility also varied with multiple natural characteristics of bone, including mineral density, though the nature of that relationship was dependent on whether an old fracture was present. Severity of the experimental fracture demonstrated considerable variation with collision energy and biomechanical properties. An omega-3 enhanced diet provided a protective effect against fractures, though only in terms of collision energies that were relatively low. In conclusion, the impact testing protocol provided a unique means to assess fracture susceptibility and quantify the role of likely influencing bird-level biological factors, both those that vary naturally as well as when altered through specific interventions.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Research Foci > Veterinary Public Health / Herd Health Management
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Public Health Institute > Animal Welfare Division
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Public Health Institute
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH)

UniBE Contributor:

Toscano, Michael Jeffrey

Subjects:

600 Technology > 630 Agriculture

ISSN:

1932-6203

Publisher:

Public Library of Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Lilian Karin Smith-Wirth

Date Deposited:

05 Feb 2019 15:33

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:25

Publisher DOI:

10.1371/journal.pone.0200025

PubMed ID:

29990363

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.125716

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/125716

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