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Abstract

Early experiences can impact individual’s abilities to make the most of futureopportunities by affecting exploration, spatial skills and learning. This study aimedto identify specific environmental inputs during rearing that could promote thesetraits. During Early-rearing (Day 1-Week 4), 364 one-day-old laying hen chicks (16pens) were housed in one of two environments; “Multi-Choice” (four litter andperch types) or “Single-Choice” (one litter and perch type). During Mid-rearing(Week 5-15), half of the groups changed to the opposite environment, resulting infour treatment combinations. At Week 16, all groups were moved to standard layingpens. Birds’ responses were assessed in behavioural tests offering opportunities tofind mealworms and from video recordings following transfer the laying pens. AHole-board Habituation Test (Week 9-10) was carried out in a novel arena withbirds alone or in groups of three. Repeated Challenge Tests (Week 14 and 17) werecarried out in the home pen at the group level. Birds with “Multi-Choice” duringMid-rearing ate proportionally more mealworms in the behaviour tests comparedto “Single-Choice” birds (P

Published in

Rapport (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Institutionen för husdjurens miljö och hälsa)
2022, number: 58, pages: 14-14

Conference

32nd Nordic region winter meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology, 220126-220128, digital meeting

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Behavioral Sciences Biology

Publication identifier

  • ISBN: 978-91-576-9951-0

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/116991