The effects of feed restriction, time of day, and time since feeding on behavioral and physiological indicators of hunger in broiler breeder hens.

ABSTRACT: Broiler breeder chickens are commercially feed restricted to slow their growth and improve their health and production, however, there is research demonstrating that this leads to chronic hunger resulting in poor welfare. A challenge in these studies is to account for possible daily rhythms or the effects of time since last meal on measures relating hunger. To address this, we used 3 feed treatments: AL (ad libitum fed), Ram (restricted, fed in the morning), and Rpm (restricted, fed in the afternoon) to control for diurnal effects. We then conducted foraging motivation tests and collected home pen behavior and physiological samples at 4 times relative to feeding throughout a 24-h period. The feed treatment had the largest influence on the data, with AL birds weighing more, having lower con

SUBMITTER: Dixon LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8983422 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature