Introduction
What is LayWel?
LayWel is a research project funded by the FP6 European Research Programme and national fundings from different EU countries.
The LayWel- project studies the welfare implications of changes in production systems for laying hens.
The general objective of the LayWel project is to produce a series of reports on the welfare of laying hens in various systems, with special focus on enriched cages, and to make the information well known, particularly over all member states of the EU and associated countries.
The LayWel project is divided into 7 WorkPackages :
1. Welfare definitions
2. Housing systems
3. Health
4. Behaviour
5. Physiology and stress indicators
6. Productivity and egg quality
7. Integrated welfare assessment
The last WorkPackage is basically an assembly of the previous work.
A few highlights of exploitable knowledge from these workpackes
Photographic scoring system
A scoring system to quantify feather quality, skin lesions and other health characteristics is important to be able to measure the effect of housing, management and/or treatment on health and welfare of hens.
WP 7: Integrated welfare assessment
Manual for self assessment of welfare of laying hens on farm (English version)
The manual provides a tool for farmers to monitor the welfare status of their birds in an objective way.
Database
The database comprises results of many studies on housing of laying hens in various European countries. The data were collected both on commercial farms and in experimental units.