Cynthia Schuck-Paim, Wladimir J. Alonso
Using the Cumulative Pain framework to quantify the impact of reforms and interventions on poultry welfare has required assessing the intensity, duration, and prevalence of numerous welfare challenges such as diseases, injuries, fear, and behavioral deprivations. This process has exposed a multitude of research areas where knowledge is lacking. Interestingly, research dedicated to understanding these welfare challenges at the individual level – where the actual suffering is experienced – remains surprisingly sparse. Similarly, the temporal aspects of welfare challenges, including their duration and healing times, have largely been neglected.
Here we summarize key areas where evidence on the welfare of broiler chickens and egg-laying hens is missing.
Although all affective experiences unfold over time, little attention has been paid to understanding the time course of important welfare challenges affecting poultry (e.g., gait-impairing conditions, cardiorespiratory abnormalities) or the extent to which their onset is delayed with improved genetics or management. This knowledge is critical to understand how long animals spend in negative affective states of various natures. The table below indicates where this knowledge and data is missing for key welfare challenges affecting farmed laying hens and broilers.
A second class of gaps relates to evidence on the degree of aversiveness associated with different harms, as perceived by animals. Studies involving ‘demand elasticity’, ‘willingness to pay’ and other preference tests are needed in multiple areas. The table below indicates where knowledge and data is missing.
Major data gaps are present on the prevalence of welfare challenges in commercial conditions. Where data is available, it is (1) overwhelmingly from countries where legislation is stricter (suggesting a bias, or ‘healthy farm effect’, towards better welfare), (2) from farms (‘healthy farms’) agreeing to take part in studies, (3) from experimental conditions not representative of commercial scenarios, and/or (4) outdated. The table below summarizes some major evidence gaps.
(this summary was presented at the European Symposium of Poultry Welfare, 2023).
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