February 25 2005

Summarising notes on the comments of Stakeholders at the LayWel meeting in Milan, 24-02-05

(some comments received by e-mail are also included)

Work Package 1 Welfare definitions

• What exactly is the welfare definition used in the LayWel project?
• There is always a need to balance welfare requirements/status against other requirements (e.g. economy)
• Definitions put forward by for example Simonsen and Mench could be included (c.f. Mench, J.A. 1998. Thirty Years After Brambell. Whither Animal Welfare Science?, J. of Appl. Anim. Welfare Sci. 1(2),
  91-102).

Work Package 2 Definition of categories of housing systems

• when does a cage become non-cage? Answer: as soon as they are operated from inside
• the ‘cage’ label may have negative effects on the acceptability of a system (public perception)
• Info on depopulation of various systems should be available. Answer: this will be presented in the EFSA report

Work Package 3 Health

• on what level of a certain parameter (% of birds on a certain level) do you take action?
• what is relevance of feather loss for welfare?

Work Package 4 Behaviour

• take effects of rearing into account
• there are other types of substrate possible than the ones included in the study (e.g. Astroturf, feed).
• perhaps description of litter in more general terms (e.g. particle size, % moisture).
• Can feed be a good substrate?
• take account of problems e.g. dust
• hens should be able to differentiate between dustbath material and laying nest
• management of substrate is very relevant for substrate
• what about sex composition (e.g. Odén et al 1999, Appl Anim Behav Sci 62: 219-231 and later work)

Work Package 5 Physiology

• a minimum level of stress is necessary (and stress can be positive)
• it is technically difficult to collect reliable physiological parameters under practical husbandry conditions, and they are influenced by many factors, e.g. group size, breed

Work Package 6 Egg production and –quality

• there are different housing system from which the same trade category of eggs is produced
• higher food intake in non cage systems may be caused by a higher activity level but also by presence of popholes that hamper control of house temperature.
• some of the data are based on small number of flocks or on specific research flocks and are far away from practical experience (e.g. second grades)
• basis for data base is there. Now it has to be filled further

Work Package 7 Integrated welfare

• the welfare assessment should be translated into transparent information for the consumer that appeals to the consumer’s perception of animal welfare. This is the main thrust in EU-project Welfare Quality. Links between parallel studies will be made as much as possible. The LayWel project will provide objective information on laying hen welfare aspects. Consumers make choices that are also based on other aspects.