Montalcini, Camille M; Toscano, Michael J; Gebhardt‑Henrich, Sabine G.; Petelle, Matthew B (2023). Intra-individual variation of hen movements is associated with later keel bone fractures in a quasi-commercial aviary. Scientific reports, 13(1), p. 2377. Springer Nature 10.1038/s41598-023-29587-9
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Measuring intra- and inter-individual variation in movement can bring important insights into the fundamental ecology of animals and their welfare. Although previous studies identified consistent differences in movements of laying hens within commercial aviaries, the level of consistency was not quantified, limiting our capacity to understand the importance of individual movements for welfare. We aimed to quantify the scope of intra- and inter-individual differences in movements of commercial laying hens and examined their associations with indicators of welfare at the end of production. We quantified individual differences in one composite daily movement score for 80 hens over 54 days post-transfer to a quasi-commercial aviary. Results showed consistent inter-individual differences in movement averages, explaining 44% of the variation, as well as individual variation in predictability and temporal plasticity (at the population-level, hens increased their movements for 39 days). Hens that were more predictable in their daily movements had more severe keel bone fractures at the end of production while we found no such correlation between daily movement averages (individual intercept) and welfare indicators. Our findings highlight the importance of inter-individual difference in intra-individual variation of movements to improve poultry welfare.
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) > Veterinary Public Health Institute > Animal Welfare Division 05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Public Health Institute |
Graduate School: |
Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB) |
UniBE Contributor: |
Montalcini, Camille Marie, Toscano, Michael Jeffrey, Gebhardt, Sabine |
Subjects: |
600 Technology > 630 Agriculture |
ISSN: |
2045-2322 |
Publisher: |
Springer Nature |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Pubmed Import |
Date Deposited: |
10 Feb 2023 10:05 |
Last Modified: |
02 Mar 2023 23:37 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1038/s41598-023-29587-9 |
PubMed ID: |
36759525 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.48350/178604 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/178604 |
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