WP 2: Description of housing systems for laying hens
Council Directive 1999/74/EC laying down minimum standards for housing of laying hens, defines three major categories of housing system: alternative systems, unenriched cage systems and enriched cage systems, more correctly called furnished cages. In time unenriched cages are due to be phased out, leaving only two categories of housing system. Both categories however comprise a wide variety of different models, making it hard to draw conclusions on bird welfare in these systems. A better indication of welfare in relation to housing system can be made by using sub-categories of housing system.WP2 is needed to harmonise terminology throughout the other WPs and to be able to evaluate welfare on the basis of system criteria and provisions.
As WP7 will combine information from all other WPs, the description and working systematics in each WP should be compatible. The objective of WP2 is to identify in detail the different categories of housing systems for laying hens, to describe the range of variation within these categories and their significance for European egg production. It will emphasise the furnished cage systems.
The output of WP2 is a report with descriptions of the different categories of housing systems for laying hens, a description of the variation and the various systems within categories and regional distribution of these systems. As these descriptions were necessary for the other WPs the work commenced at the start of the project and the first draft was ready in the first year of the LayWel project. In the second year of the project there was a check for changes and new developments, after which the chapter was updated and finalised.
| Description | download |
| Poster WSPA Housing 2005 |
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| 2.3 Description of housing for laying hens |
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