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Sham dustbathing and use of dustbaths in furnished cages for laying hens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

I.A.S. Olsson  and
L.J Keeling
I.A.S. Olsson
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Animal Sciences, P.O. Box 234, 532 23 Skara, Sweden
L.J Keeling
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Animal Sciences, P.O. Box 234, 532 23 Skara, Sweden
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Extract

The furnished cage for laying hens is one attempt to meet the welfare problem of behavioural restriction in conventional battery cages. However despite the presence of a dustbath, sham dustbathing on the cage floor, which is usually associated with litter deprivation, is often seen. It has been suggested that the performance of sham dustbathing is satisfying enough to substitute for dustbathing in litter (Lindberg & Nicol, 1997) but later experimental studies have failed to show that it reduces the motivation to dustbathe in litter (Lindberg, 1999; Olsson et al, accepted). An alternative hypothesis is that sham dustbathing is a consequence of social competition since the dustbath is not big enough to allow all birds in a cage to use it at the same time. If this hypothesis is true, sham dustbathing would be expected to take place mainly when the dustbath is occupied. We tested the hypothesis by observing sham dustbathing and the use of dustbaths in furnished cages.

Type
Poster Presentations
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2002 , 2002 , pp. 224
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2002

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References

Lindberg, A.C. and Nicol, C.J. 1997. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 55: 113–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindberg, A.C. 1999. In: Proc. 33rd Congr of the ISAE. Lillehammer, Norway.Google Scholar
Olsson, I.A.S., Keeling, L.J. and Duncan, I.J.H. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. Accepted for publication.Google Scholar