52. Hens must be maintained in good health to ensure good welfare.
53. In all systems, equipment should be designed, sited and installed so as to minimise the risk of birds becoming injured. A very important consideration in relation to pain is beak trimming which is used extensivelyparticularly in alternative systems to limit injurious feather pecking and cannibalism (see section on beak trimming and injurious pecking, paragraphs 62-74).
54. In general, the infectious diseases of laying hens are well controlled by vaccination. Routine vaccination is used for Marek's disease, Newcastle disease, infectious bronchitis, infectious bursal disease, avian rhinotracheitis and infectious avian encephalomyelitis. Sometimes egg drop syndrome vaccine is used and more commonly now vaccination for infectious laryngotracheitis is required. With routine use of vaccines and good husbandry the health of layers is generally good. Mortality from disease tends to be lower in well designed and managed cage systems tends to be lower than in extensive non-cage systems. In free range systems birds may be exposed to organisms carried by free flying birds such as pasteurella, salmonella and avian tuberculosis.
55. Mite control is becoming more of a problem in most systems and regular spraying of equipment is needed while the birds are in situ. The irritation caused by these parasites can be severe if they are not controlled. There are very few licensed products for mite control; this is a significant welfare issue as resistance to these compounds appears to be developing.
56. Exposure to litter and pasture mean that control of coccidiosis and worms is essential. Routine treatment for endoparasites, as well as good litter and land management, are required. There is only one fully authorised product (active ingredient flubendazol) for poultry available for treatment of endoparasites but the requirement to withdraw eggs from sale during and after treatment means that it is expensive to use for birds in lay in the UK. The welfare of the birds is undoubtedly worse if they are not treated and the Government should consider ways of ensuring that suitable products are available for use on poultry.
57. We believe that hens with clinical signs of disease should not have treatment withheld. It is essential that the welfare, and particularly the health, of birds in the UK is not adversely affected by limitations on the availability of medicines which are known to be effective and do not pose a food safety hazard.
58. We urge the Government to take action to ensure that the welfare of the UK flock is not disadvantaged by formalities which inhibit the availability of effective medicines.
59. Government should pursue with its EU counterparts improved harmonisation of registration procedures to ensure uniformity and increase the range of medicines available.
60. Breakage of bones (mainly wings, legs and keel) is commonly a problem in the laying hen. There is evidence which shows that significant numbers of hens have bones broken in the process of depopulating the laying accommodation. Skeletal weakness, which contributes to these fractures, is exacerbated by high levels of egg production. Evidence has demonstrated that bone strength varies with strain of hens and also according to the rearing systems. There is clear evidence that lack of exercise of birds in conventional cages causes poor bone strength. On the other hand, hens which have more exercise, changing levels from floor to raised perches, tend to have better foot condition and greater bone strength but may still suffer some damage by flying into furniture and fittings. Progress has been made in improving the design of cage fronts to make access better for depopulation thus reducing bone breakage. Good design of housing and equipment in all systems can help to prevent injuries, for example, when birds fall between different levels or fly into furniture. We believe that hens should have the opportunity for sufficient exercise to develop and maintain sufficient bone strength.
61. We recommend that steps should be taken to ensure that there is a significant reduction in the occurrence and severity of bone damage. We wish to see continuing improvements to the design of facilities for hens. We urge the industry, with FAWC involvement, to establish levels of bone weakness problems and the extent of bone damage by examination of bird carcasses at the slaughterhouse; and to demonstrate improvements over a five year period. FAWC will keep the matter under review.
62. We consider that the mutilation of all livestock is undesirable and continues to regard beak trimming as a major welfare insult. We do, however, recognise that in some systems such procedures may currently be necessary. Where the operation is performed correctly, it can help to avoid worse problems. Nonetheless, the ultimate aim should be the avoidance of beak trimming.
63. The avoidance of injurious pecking is a major difficulty and research workers and the poultry industry must continue to address the problems of feather pecking and cannibalism to find satisfactory solutions. The causes do not appear to be fully understood and it is difficult to determine why a flock in which such pecking does not occur may be followed by one, kept in the same conditions, in which injurious pecking may be prevalent. We would like to see liaison between research organisations, the industry and Government in the belief that the combined approach is most likely to achieve progress.
64. FAWC urges the industry to seek a practicable and workable solution to the problem of feather pecking and cannibalism without the need for beak trimming. We ask the egg industry to set up, in consultation with FAWC, a survey of beak trimming in the UK flock. This would allow us to determine the extent of the problem and set a target for improvement.
65. FAWC will review the issue of feather pecking, cannibalism and beak trimming in 5 years from the publication of this report. In the absence of adequate progress, it may be necessary for us to recommend statutory controls.
66. Throughout the literature, there is evidence of differences between strains of hens in relation to a wide range of behaviour patterns. Indeed, different strains of hen demonstrate different levels of injurious behaviour. This is an area for research which should particularly consider the relationship between strain of bird, colony size, stocking density, house environment and need for beak trimming We understand that selection for traits which have an effect on welfare , such as injurious pecking behaviour, is currently at an early stage but there is reason to believe that this approach may result in improved welfare.
67. We are greatly concerned to hear of an increase over recent years in the incidence of beak trimming of hens in battery cages. This increase may be associated with genetic change in the laying flock. It may also be due to the fact that many hatcheries routinely beak trim since birds may be destined for any system. It seems possible that rather than exploiting genetic variation in feather pecking and cannibalism to reduce welfare problems, the breeding companies may have inadvertently made the situation worse. Evidence from the USA that genetic selection can significantly and substantially reduce feather pecking and cannibalism is encouraging. There appears to be great potential for genetic selection to overcome, either partly or wholly, the problem of feather pecking and cannibalism and hence the need for beak trimming. We would like to see evidence of a concerted effort by the egg industry and retailers to ensure that the laying hen breeding companies reduce the genetic tendency of the hen to injurious feather pecking and cannibalism.
68. In practice, there are various degrees of severity of beak trimming but all trimming must be carried out within the law which states that not more than one third of the upper and lower beak may be removed. Beaks of laying hens are also trimmed when problems occur later in life. The literature demonstrates quite clearly that beak trimming of older birds causes acute pain at the time of the operation and also, in the longer term, that hens suffer chronic pain resulting from neuromas. Recent evidence indicates that beak trimming at under 10 days of age, results in little long term pain and practical experience in industry suggests that beak trimming at this age will reduce injurious feather pecking and cannibalism in later life. We see the need for more work on beak trimming of birds at a young age to determine optimal age and best technique and the long term effects of this treatment in relation to injurious feather pecking and cannibalism.
69. We consider that beak trimming is a most undesirable mutilation which should be avoided if at all possible and only used if essential to prevent worse welfare problems of injurious feather pecking and cannibalism.
70. We recommend that the egg production industry sets up a survey of the incidence of beak trimming of laying birds in all systems in the UK. FAWC will keep the matter under review.
71. We believe that the prevention of injurious feather pecking and cannibalism is a most important area for research and development and we are clear that the poultry industry and scientists must work together to solve the problem. This should include studies using relatively large flock sizes and under a range of practical conditions which can be carefully defined in order to derive workable guidelines.
72. In addition, all breeding companies should be strongly encouraged by the laying hen industry and Government to pursue genetic selection for birds which display less injurious behaviour.
73. We recommend that, if beak trimming is essential, it should be carried out at up to 10 days of age (ideally 7-10 days of age which is currently best practice in the UK industry). Neither trimming nor re-trimming of older birds should be carried out other than under the recommendation of a veterinarian and only in order to avoid a worse welfare problem, e.g. caused by an outbreak of cannibalism.
74. More research into the pain, both immediate and chronic, associated with beak trimming of young (less than 10 day old) chicks is required. There is a need to assess the longer term effects of various methods of beak trimming on pecking behaviour patterns and whether beaks that re-grow are used for injurious feather pecking and cannibalism in a similar way to untrimmed beaks.
75. The law already prohibits the fitting of blinkers by a method involving the penetration or other mutilation of the nasal septum. FAWC believes that all forms of devices fitted to hens' heads (such as spectacles, contact lenses and nasal bits) are detrimental to welfare and should be prohibited.