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Some other important factors to keep in mind pertaining to welfare challenges include nutrition, lighting, genetics and environmental stimuli. If birds have outdoor access, they’re going to have greater contact with predators. Heat and cold stress are also common as no one can control the tempera- ture outside. Any kind of stress like this is going to weaken their immune system and potentially lead to problems with diseases. With outdoor access, we also run into water pud- dles. Heavy rain can cause puddles. Bacteria can grow in this stagnant water and birds tend to drink it. A good rule of thumb is to fill in these puddles with soil. Make sure the birds have access to clean, fresh water daily. Cage-free birds also have more chance of encountering animals that carry diseases, such as raccoons, opossums and livestock. These too, are factors that you must control to help keep birds healthy and safe.


• Rodent and insect control – any rodent/insect/foreign crea- ture can bring in pathogens, causing more complications.


Welfare challenges Unfortunately cage-free challenges go beyond what is within the normal veterinary scope. One of the main welfare chal- lenges we tend to see is feather and vent pecking. Pecking and subsequently, cannibalism, can start when one birds sees the shiny or reddened tissue around the vent and pecks at it. Once the birds see blood, they can zero in on this abnormal area, leading to more pecking. This cycle can lead to mortality. You need to work on management concerns and provide ap- propriate beak trimming. There are many factors that could be involved in feather pecking or feather eating, including whether the birds feel satiated, behavioural concerns, nutri- tional deficiencies, and others. Another welfare challenge we often see is birds piling. If layers are not properly trained to be used to people walking in and out of the barn, or if you do not stop them from piling in certain areas, this can lead to suffoca- tion. Genetics are another important factor when looking at which birds will fare best in a cage-free environment. Keel trauma and broken yolks are yet another welfare challenge we see. As birds age, they may be less able to jump from one perch to another or have reduced bone density, increasing their chances of trauma to the keel bone if they land on it.


Production challenges With cage-free setups, migration is a serious issue. Birds have the ability to go anywhere, and they will. Let’s say a bird wants to go to the top or bottom tier. Because of this, they won’t touch the middle, which can result in issues with egg laying there. Ultimately, you need to work out the best system and setup to control these problems. Another issue is having the facility layout determine veterinary choices, such as the type of vaccine application. The increased diffi- culty in applying spray vaccines in a cage-free set-up com- pared to a caged set-up, can lead some operations to move in favour of water application of vaccines rather than spray vaccinations. Given the right equipment and help, spray vaccination can be done in less time and with greater efficacy than using the water route. With birds free to roam around, floor eggs can be a serious and labour-intensive problem. Ideally, we want birds to lay all their eggs in the nest. However, heated floors, increased litter depth and the layout of the system can lead to birds wanting to lay eggs on the floor. Floor eggs require more manual labour to pick them up and are often dirtier. You need to know how to train young layers to nest appropri- ately. Make sure the arrangement of the feeders, water lines, and perches doesn’t discourage birds from getting to their nesting area. You must help them to get used their new environment and do so as quickly as possible. Other- wise, you could have problems down the road. Just take the time to watch the birds and you will get a sense of what works best in your particular system. As poultry producers continue to transition to more cage-free and outdoor access, it’s important to recognize these disease, welfare and production challenges. Using these pointers you can set up an appropriate care and management plan, and determine what to address when it comes to layer health. In the end, understanding the bird is the key to how best manage and care for birds in these housing systems.


▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 8, 2021 27


PHOTO: HENK RISWICK


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