IIBYT   23944
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOLOGICAS Y TECNOLOGICAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Generando nuevas opciones para mejorar el bienestar de las aves de granja y su productividad asociada: Desarrollo y valoración un nuevo indicador temprano de buen desempeño en condiciones de alta densidad
Autor/es:
GUZMAN D. A.; MARIN R. H.
Lugar:
Córdoba
Reunión:
Encuentro; Reunión Anual del Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas II.; 2014
Resumen:
One challenge faced
by ethologists in poultry welfare
is to help birds to form functionally successful groups over time through the
expression of their social behaviours. Searching for phenotypic variability, we
developed a test, the density-related
permanence (DRP) that enables
us to classify young birds (while in groups) according
to their individual permanence in proximity to
either a high or low density of conspecifics (HD or LD, respectively).
The present study addressed the question of whether contrasting DRP
quail behaviours reflect underlying differences in sociality and/or
fearfulness. The
classification apparatus consisted of 2 boxes interconnected by a central
region delimited by 2 sliding doors. Each box contained at its distal end
either 12 or 3 conspecifics confined behind a glass. At 11 days of age and
every 1h, the sliding doors were closed and experimental birds (36) were
identified and released back in the central region of the device. According to
where they were found (box containing high-density, low-density or in
the central region) each bird received a 1, -1
or a 0 score, respectively. The procedure was repeated 9 times and the scores summed. A total of
271 and 330 birds with final values ≥3 or ≤-3 were respectively categorized as
HD or LD. After 1 to 4 weeks, categorized birds underwent one of the following
tests: home-cage and resident/intruder behaviour, open field (OF), tonic
immobility (TI) or plasma corticosterone (CORT) response to potential stressors. One-way ANOVAs showed that LD vs. HD groups of 6 birds of the same category presented
higher levels of agonistic interactions among cagemates (P≤0.05) and
towards individual intruders (P≤0.05). Two-way ANOVA showed that birds introduced
5-min in LD groups presented higher (P≤0.01) CORT levels than undisturbed controls, whereas
intruders in HD groups did not. ANOVAs also showed
that HD compared to
LD quail walked more, faster and a
greater distance in the OF (P≤0.05,
≤0.01 and ≤0.01, respectively), presented lower CORT levels after 10-min restraint (P≤0.05), and required more inductions
and developed shorter TI responses (P≤0.01
and 0.05, respectively). The bird´s response to the DRPtest could be considered a consequence of their
differential capacity to interact with conspecifics and their environment
suggesting HD and LD underlying differences in sociality and
fearfulness.