Incubation and hatching conditions of laying hen chicks explain a large part of the stress effects from commercial large-scale hatcheries.

ABSTRACT: In commercial egg production, laying hen chicks are exposed to several stressful events during incubation, hatching, and their first hours in life. We have previously shown that hatching and processing are associated with increased corticosterone concentration and further affect behavior and stress sensitivity in a short- as well as long-term perspective. However, it is not known whether these long-term stress effects are caused by the hatchery processing (sex sorting, vaccination, conveying, and loading for transport) or if they are mainly caused by potentially stressful events before processing, during incubation and hatching. In the present study, the aim was to assess the effects of incubation and hatching only, compared to stress effects from the entire hatchery processing. We compare

SUBMITTER: Hedlund L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7772692 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature