| The general aim of this project is to promote good health and welfare in European organic laying hens.
The objectives of the project are to identify management strategies that promote animal health and welfare in European organic laying hens while limiting environmental impacts. Special attention will be paid to potential problems related to the actual change to 100% organic feed ingredients.
The following hypotheses will be investigated:
• Health and welfare problems, such as feather pecking, cannibalism (WP 3), keel bone and foot lesions (WP 4), as well as endo- and ectoparasite infestation levels (WP 1) are affected by a combination of housing factors, feed, hygiene and other management factors, hen genotype and (alternative) therapies. All these factors may have considerable impacts on mortality and performance and may directly or indirectly interact with each other.
• Design and management of the free range influences how well and evenly it is used by the hens. Range use also affects environmental impacts, e.g. emissions (WP 2).
By adopting an epidemiological approach, important risk factors can be identified which will help to recommend efficient prevention and treatment strategies in order to secure good hen health and welfare and lower environmental impacts.
The project is carried out in five work packages. Work packages 1-4 are based on an observational study with a common cross-sectional design described in Work package 0. On-farm recordings are done in a similar manner across countries and are used in different epidemiological analyses in WP1-WP4. |