Are Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) Motivated to Avoid Excreta-Soiled Substrate?

Monckton, Valerie; van Staaveren, Nienke; Baes, Christine F; Balzani, Agnese; Kwon, Isabelle Y; McBride, Peter; Harlander-Matauschek, Alexandra (2020). Are Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) Motivated to Avoid Excreta-Soiled Substrate? Animals, 10(11) MDPI 10.3390/ani10112015

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The soiling of bedding on modern turkey farms combined with turkeys' reduced ability and opportunity to perch and roost at elevation, forces them to spend most, if not all, of their time in contact with their excreta. To determine turkeys' perspective on these conditions and the value they place on unsoiled bedding vs. soiled litter (collectively, substrates), we used twenty-four eleven-week-old turkey hens divided into six two-compartment pens. In the "home" compartment (H), we placed soiled wood shavings, while the "treatment" compartment (T) contained no substrate (NS), fresh pine and spruce wood shavings (FP), soiled pine and spruce wood shavings (SP), ammonia reductant-treated soiled pine and spruce wood shavings (TSP), or a feed treatment. One-way push-doors separated the two compartments. The door leading to T weighed an additional 0%, 20% or 40% of the turkeys' body weight while the door to H remained unweighted. All birds were exposed to each resource and door weight combination in a systematic order. We measured the turkeys' motivation based on the number of birds that pushed the maximum weight to access each resource, the amount of time spent in T, and the number of visits to T. Our findings show that turkeys worked harder to access feed compared to all the floor substrate treatments. Additionally, they were equally motivated to access all the substrate treatments.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

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

ISSN:

2076-2615

Publisher:

MDPI

Language:

English

Submitter:

Christine Francoise Baes

Date Deposited:

13 Sep 2021 09:39

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:53

Publisher DOI:

10.3390/ani10112015

PubMed ID:

33147707

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Meleagris gallopavo bedding floor ground litter operant methods preference rubber mats welfare

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/159202

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/159202

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