Feather pecking (FP) is a multifactorial abnormal behavior in laying hens where they display harmful pecks in conspecifics. FP has been associated with the altered functioning of the microbiome-gut-brain axis affecting host emotions and social behavior. The altered levels of serotonin (5-HT), a key ...

Severe feather pecking, the pulling out of feathers of conspecifics, is a major welfare issue in laying hens. Possible underlying causes are fearfulness and lack of foraging opportunities. Because early life is a crucial stage in behavioral development, adapting the incubation and rearing...

In recent years, outbreaks of toe pecking (TP) have been reported in laying hen flocks on Swiss farms leading to increased mortality. A literature search revealed a 17.3-fold lower number of scientific articles and a 20-fold lower number of citations about TP compared with feather pecking....

Various aspects of activity, such as spontaneous activity, explorative activity, activity in openfield tests, and hyperactivity syndrome have been explored as causal factors of feather pecking in laying hens, with no clear results. In all previous studies, mean values of activity over different...

Feather pecking (FP) is one of the primary welfare issues in commercial cage-free hen houses as that can seriously reduce the well-being of birds and cause economic losses for egg producers. After beak trimming is highly criticized in Europe and the USA, alternative methods are needed for pecking...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 16L:8D photoperiod with green (GREEN) or white (WHITE) lights during incubation on hatching performance, blood melatonin, corticosterone, and serotonin levels, hypothalamic expressions of genes related to photoreception, serotonin, and stress...

Feather pecking in chickens is a damaging behavior, seriously impacting animal welfare and leading to economic losses. Feather pecking is a complex trait, which is partly under genetic control. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the etiology of feather pecking and notably, several...

1. This study investigated the effects of three diets with increasing proportions of insoluble dietary fibre (3%, 6% and 9%) but with similar metabolisable energy on behaviour, plumage condition and laying performance of Lohmann Tradition hens. 2. At 21 weeks of age, four groups of 20 hens each (=...

The objective of this study was to describe the ontogeny of the severe feather pecking (SFP), gentle feather pecking (GFP), aggressive pecking (AP), and enrichment pecking (EP) of non-beak-trimmed Lohmann Brown (LB)-pullets during the first 4 weeks of life (observation on 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and...