van Staaveren, Nienke van; Decina, Caitlin; Baes, Christine F.; Widowski, Tina M.; Berke, Olaf; Harlander-Matauschek, Alexandra (2019). Housing and Management Practices on 33 Pullet Farms in Canada. Animals, 9(2), p. 49. MDPI 10.3390/ani9020049
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Although Canada is one of the first to provide guidelines on pullet rearing in a new Code of Practice which came into effect in March 2017, little information is available about the housing and management of pullets on Canadian farms. We surveyed 99 pullet farmers and received useable responses from 33 pullet farmers (33.3% response rate) who took part in the Start Clean-Stay Clean™ program through their provincial egg boards across Canada during October–December 2017 as part of a larger study. Most flocks were housed in conventional cage systems (42.4%), followed by single-tier (33.3%) and multi-tier systems (24.2%). Flocks ranged from 1–19 weeks of age (average: 10.5 weeks of age) and were white- (58.1%) or brown-feathered (41.9%). In general, non-cage farmers met the new requirements set out in the Code of Practice for space, perches and litter provision during pullet rearing during this transitional period. Conventional caged flocks did not have opportunities for perching and foraging, but developing new methods to provide pullets with opportunities to perch and forage will become more important as the laying hen housing system transition from conventional cages to furnished cage and non-cage housing systems in Canada progresses. Additionally, clear litter management recommendations for farmers to ensure good litter quality are needed for non-cage housing systems.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
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Division/Institute: |
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Institute of Genetics 05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) |
UniBE Contributor: |
Baes, Christine Francoise |
Subjects: |
500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology) 600 Technology > 630 Agriculture 500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology |
ISSN: |
2076-2615 |
Publisher: |
MDPI |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Christine Francoise Baes |
Date Deposited: |
22 Oct 2019 14:44 |
Last Modified: |
05 Dec 2022 15:29 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.3390/ani9020049 |
PubMed ID: |
30736364 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.7892/boris.131744 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/131744 |
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