Date: May 16, 2016
Source: University of Bristol
Recognized welfare outcome
assessments within farm assurance schemes have shown a reduction in feather
loss and improvement in the welfare of UK cage-free laying hens, according to
the findings of a study from the AssureWel project by the University of Bristol,
RSPCA and the Soil Association.
In the UK, cage-free
egg-production systems account for 49 per cent of all eggs produced. Almost all
of these farms are farm assured under the RSPCA's Freedom Food Scheme and some
are certified to the Soil Association organic standards.
The two-year study, published in Animal
Welfare, by the AssureWel project partners, which includes academics from the
University's School of Veterinary Sciences examined the results of farm
assurance assessor observations of feather loss in hens on RSPCA monitored
Freedom Food and Soil Association members' farms using the AssureWel programme
and other industry activities aimed at reducing feather loss.
In 2011 the RSPCA's Freedom Food
and Soil Association farm assurance schemes introduced welfare outcome
assessment into their annual audits of laying-hen farms. Feather loss was
assessed on 50 birds from each flock on a three-point scale for two body
regions: head and neck (HN) and back and vent (BV).
To support the observations,
assessors were trained in feedback techniques designed to encourage change in
farmer behaviour to improve welfare. In addition, during the second year of the
study farmers were asked about changes they had made, and intended to make on
their farms.
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