Performance, behavior, and welfare of turkey poults reared under different housing conditions

Abstract

Turkey's production is very profitable due to the growing demand for its products worldwide, however, poultry farming incurs significant economic losses throughout its production life cycle due to various stressors and high energy costs, particularly during the brooding period. Battery cages save housing space that can drastically reduce broodiness energy costs however, it can make birds suffer. Nowadays, Customers demand products derived from poultry reared in the optimal environment to ensure their welfare. However, the producers care about maximizing performance with the lowest production costs. This study was designed in a trial to reduce broodiness energy costs by rearing turkey poults in batteries and evaluate the performance, behavior, and welfare of caged and floor-reared birds. One thousand turkey poults were housed either on the floor or in battery post-hatching at a stocking density of 52 turkey poults/m². Behaviors, body weight, weight gain, and some welfare indicators were studied. The results revealed that battery-reared turkey poults have significantly increased 4^th week weight, weight gain, and cumulative weight gain. It also showed increased body care and drinking behavior, while eating behavior significantly decreased. Additionally, they have a better feather cleanliness score but were more stressed and fearful as indicated by longer tonic immobility (TI) duration, greater fluctuating asymmetry (FA) value of middle toe length, and increased sitting, latency to ambulate in open field test (OFT) as compared with floor reared ones. However, serum levels of cortisol or oxidative stress markers (MDA, GSH) as well as mortality % didn’t differ significantly among the two systems. In conclusion: using batteries in rearing turkey poults may be an applicable strategy to decrease broodiness energy costs, but with some welfare concerns.