(How) can individual broiler feeding patterns shed light on their health, welfare and performance?

They observed, among other things, that birds with higher body weight at two weeks old visited fewer different feeders in a day, but showed longer mean feeding bout durations.

“Feeding behaviour patterns over time are highly relevant to monitor in broilers, due to the insights these may provide into growth, health and walking ability,” says Malou van der Sluis, researcher at ABG. “For example, feed intake is positively related to body weight gain in broilers, and therefore to their productive performance. Furthermore, both body weight and growth rate have been shown to be linked to broiler gait.”

Tracking individual broilers

Overall, feeding behaviour patterns over time seem to be highly relevant to monitor in broilers, but because broilers are commonly kept in large groups, collecting data on broiler behaviour patterns can be challenging. “Broilers are difficult to recognize and monitor individually due to their highly similar appearance,” says Malou. “However, body-worn sensor technologies, such as RFID tracking, ultra-wideband tracking or the use of accelerometers, can help to collect data at the individual level in poultry.”

Sensor technologies for identification and tracking

Malou and her colleagues collected data on a broiler farm in the Netherlands. They tagged a small subset of the birds in the pen with a high frequency (HF) RFID tag for identification and tracking. In addition, they fitted the feeders in the pen with HF RFID antennas. The antennas were connected to readers that could detect the RFID tags of the birds present within the antenna range. Using custom-made software, a log file was stored with the bird ID, the location of the antenna, and the date and time of the registration. This information was then used to determine the feeder visits and feeding durations.

Individual variation

The researchers observed variation between individual birds in their spatial and temporal feeding patterns. For example, some birds remained more in one location within a day, whereas others used feeders throughout the pen. Furthermore, it was observed that birds with a higher body weight at two weeks old visited fewer different feeders in a day but showed longer mean feeding bout durations, while birds with a larger body weight gain from 14 to 35 days of age visited more feeders and showed shorter mean feeding bout durations.

Although the results from the study thus suggest that data on feeding behaviour can provide insight into body weight and weight gain, they are - in their current form - not informative for walking ability in broilers. “Birds with poor gait scores might experience pain and show a reduction in activity, potentially resulting in fewer different feeders being visited,” says Malou. “However, we observed no relationship between gait classification and feeding behaviour patterns in this study.”

The study was recently published in PoultryScience and can be read here.