Behavior of domestic chickens – insights from a narrative review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5965/223811712132022360Keywords:
animal welfare, broiler, henAbstract
The intensification of poultry production systems has brought major changes in domestic fowls' physical and social environment. The management of these birds has received considerable attention in recent years due to new demands from consumers, especially those related to welfare. Behavior is the way that animals respond to the different stimuli they encounter in their environment. The behavioral expressions of poultry and the application of this knowledge in the care of the stock plays an important part in the maximization of the production efficiency of the poultry chain. Thus, defining ethical limits and guidelines for poultry production is essential to promote the development of new production practices, and by that ensure quality and productivity without putting bird welfare at risk. This review is based on scientific literature and highlights the main behavioral expressions of domestic chickens, including social, feeding, and reproductive expressions, in addition to stereotypes and strategies for social adaptation. Thus, it will promote to the reader and for the scientific community a better understanding about subjects that are not frequently discussed and by that help behavioral analyzes.
Downloads
References
ABREU VMN & ABREU PG. 2011. Os desafios da ambiência sobre os sistemas de aves no Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia, Concórdia 40:1-14.
AMARAL GF et al. 2016. Avicultura de postura: estrutura da cadeia produtiva, panorama do setor no Brasil e no mundo e o apoio do BNDES. Rio de Janeiro: Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social. Disponível em: https://web.bndes.gov.br/bib/jspui/handle/1408/9579. Acesso em: 20 out. 2021.
ANGEVAARE M et al. 2012. The effect of maternal care and infrared beak trimming on development, performance and behavior of Silver Nick hens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 140: 70-84.
ALCALA RS et al. 2019. Aggressive dominance can decrease behavioral complexity on subordinates through synchronization of locomotor activities. Communications Biology 2: 1-14.
ALBINO LFT & TAVERNARI FC. 2010. Produção e manejo de frangos de corte. 1.ed. Viçosa: UFV.
BARRET J et al. 2014. Smothering in UK free-range flocks. Part 1: incidence, location, timing and management. Veterinary Record 175: 19-19.
BASSI LJ et al. 2006. Recomendações básica para manejo de frangos de corte colonial. 1.ed. Concordia: Embrapa Suínos e Aves.
BERECZKEI T. 2017. Machiavelliansim – The psychology of manipulation. 1.ed. London: Routledge.
BOZAKOVA NA et al. 2017. Ethological aspects of hens welfare supplemented with immunomodulator immunobeta. Bulgarian Journal of Veterinary Medicine 20: 144-148.
BHANJA SK & BHADAURIA P. 2018. Behaviour and welfare concepts in laying hens and their association with housing systems. Indian Journal of Poultry Science 53: 1-10.
BOKKERS EAM & KOENE P. 2003. Eating behaviour, and preprandial and postprandial correlations in male broiler and layer chickens. British Poultry Science 44: 538–544.
BRUNBERG EI et al. 2016. Omnivores Going Astray: a review and new synthesis of abnormal behavior in pigs and laying hens. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 3: 1-15.
BRUNO LDG et al. 2011. Water intake behavior of broiler chickens exposed to heat stress and drinking from bell or and nipple drinkers. Revista Brasileira de Ciência Avícola 13: 147-152.
CAMPBELL DLM et al. 2016. Litter use by laying hens in a commercial aviary: dust bathing and piling. Poultry Science 95: 164-175.
CARRUTHERS C et al. 2012. On-farm survey of beak characteristics in White Leghorns as a result of hot blade trimming or infrared beak treatment. Journal of Applied Poultry Research 21: 645–650.
CHASE ID & SEITZ K. 2011. Self-Structuring Properties of Dominance Hierarchies. Advances in Genetics 75: 51-81.
COSTA LS et al. 2012. Some aspects of chicken behavior and welfare. Revista Brasileira de Ciência Avícola 14: 159-164.
DAWKINS M. 1977. Do hens suffer in battery cages? Environmental preferences and welfare. Animal Behaviour 25: 1034-1046.
DAWKINS M. 1978. Welfare and the Structure of a Battery Cage: Size and Cage Floor Preferences in Domestic Hens. Veterinary Journal 134:469-475.
DAWKINS M. 1988. Behavioral Deprivation: A Central Problem in Animal Welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 20: 209-225.
DOHRENWEND A. 2018. Defining Empathy to Better Teach, Measure, and Understand Its Impact. Academic Medicine 93: 1754-1756.
DÜPJAN S et al. 2020. Emotional contagion and its implications for animal welfare. CAB reviews 15: 1-6.
EDGAR JL et al. 2011. Avian maternal response to chick distress. Proceedings Royal Society 278: 3129-3134.
EKLUND B & JENSEN P. 2011. Domestication effects on behavioral synchronization and individual distances in chickens (Gallus gallus). Behavioural Processes 86: 250-256.
EVANS CS. 2002. Cracking the code: communication and cognition in birds. In: BEKOFF M et al. (1ed.). The cognitive animal: empirical and theoretical perspectives on animal cognition. Cambridge: MIT Pres. p. 315–322.
FERREIRA VHB et al. 2021. Working for food is related to range use in free-range broiler chickens. Scientific Reports 11: 1-11.
FRAGOSO JS et al. 2012. Relationships Between Fertility and Some Parameters in Male Broiler Breeders (Body and Testicular Weight, Histology and Immunohistochemistry of Testes, Spermatogenesis and Hormonal Levels). Reproduction In Domestic Animals. 48: 345-352.
GENTLE MJ. 2011. Pain issues in poultry. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 135: 252– 258.
GRANDIN T. 2019. Crossing the divide between academic research and practical application of ethology and animal behavior information on commercial livestock and poultry farms. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 218: 104828.
GUHL AM. 1945. Some observations and experiments on social behavior in the domestic fowl. Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci. 47: 337-341.
GUPTA SHAILESH K et al. 2015. Comparison of social ranks based on ethogram and social dominance tests in Vencobb and Vanaraja birds. Indian Journal of Poultry Science 50: 85-89.
GYGER M & MARLER P. 1988. Food calling in the domestic fowl, Gallus gallus: the role of external referents and deception. Animal Behaviour 36: 358-365.
HATA A et al. 2021. Origin and evolutionary history of domestic chickens inferred from a large population study of Thai red junglefowl and indigenous chickens. Scientific Reports 11: 2035.
HERBERT GT et al. 2021. Extreme crowding in laying hens during a recurrent smothering outbreak. VetRecord 188: 1-4.
HESHAM M et al. 2018. Impact of different light colors in behavior, welfare parameters and growth performance of Fayoumi broiler chicken’s strain. Journal of the Hellenic Veterinary Medical Society 69: 951-958.
ICKEN W et al. 2017. Selection on Beak Shape to Reduce Feather Pecking in Laying Hens. Disponível em: https://lohmann-breeders.com/lohmanninfo/selection-on-beak-shape-to-reduce-feather-pecking-in-laying-hens/. Acesso em: 20 out. 2021.
IFFLAND H et al. 2021. Phenotypic and genomic analyses of agonistic interactions in laying hen lines divergently selected for feather pecking. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 234: 105177.
IZAR P et al. 2006. Describing the organization of dominance relationships by dominance-directed tree method. American Journal of Primatology 68: 189-207.
JACOB J. 2021. Egg eating by chickens in small and backyard flocks. Disponível em: https://poultry.extension.org/articles/poultry-behavior/egg-eating-by-chickens-in-small-and-backyard-flocks. Acesso em: 07 jul. 2021.
JENSEN AB et al. 2006. Effect of brooders on feather pecking and cannibalism in domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 99: 287–300.
DE JONG IC et al. 2009. Development of sexual behaviour in commercially-housed broiler breeders after mixing. British Poultry Science 50: 151–160.
KHARAYAT NS et al. 2016. Significance of artificial insemination in poultry. Research & Reviews: Journal of Veterinary Science and Technology 5: 1-5.
KHOSRAVINIA H. 2015. Mortality, production performance, water intake and organ weight of the heat stressed broiler chicken given savory (Satureja khuzistanica) essential oils through drinking water. Journal of Applied Animal Research 44: 273-280.
LAGANÁ C et al. 2011. Influência de métodos de debicagem e do tipo de bebedouro no desempenho e na qualidade dos ovos de codornas japonesas. Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia 40: 1217-1221.
LARA L & ROSTAGNO M. 2013. Impact of Heat Stress on Poultry Production. Animals 3: 356-369.
LI G et al. 2021. Effects of feeder space on broiler feeding behaviors. Poultry Science 100: 101016.
LI M et al. 2015. Effects of heat stress on the daily behavior of wenchang chickens. Revista Brasileira de Ciência Avícola 17: 559-566.
LOVETTE IJ & FITZPATRICK JH. 2016. Handbook of bird biology. 3.ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
MARIN RH et al. 2014. The impact of phenotypic appearance on body weight and egg production in laying hens: a group-size-and experience-dependent phenomenon. Poultry Science 93: 1623-1635.
MARINO L 2017. Thinking chickens: a review of cognition, emotion, and behavior in the domestic chicken. Animal Cognition 20: 127-147.
MAZZUCO H. 2008. Ações sustentáveis na produção de ovos. Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia. 37: 230-238.
MOYLE JR et al. 2010. Mating behavior in commercial broiler breeders: Female effects. Journal of Applied Poultry Research 19: 24-29.
NAKAMORI T et al. 2013. Neural basis of imprinting behavior in chicks. Development Growth and Differentiation 55: 198-206.
NEVES DP et al. 2015. Detection of flock movement and behaviour of broiler chickens at different feeders using image analysis. Information Processing in Agriculture 2: 177-182.
NICOL CJ et al. 2013. The prevention and control of feather pecking: application to commercial systems. World's Poultry Science Journal 69: 775-778.
NICOL CJ. 1989. Social influences on the comfort behavior of laying hens. Applied Animal Behavior Science 22: 75-81.
NIELSEN BL et al. 2011. Proportion of insoluble fiber in the diet affects behavior and hunger in broiler breeders growing at similar rates. Animals 5: 1247-1258.
NÚÑEZ-LEON et al. 2019. Morphological diversity of integumentary traits in fowl domestication: Insights from disparity analysis and embryonic development. Developmental Dinamics 284: 1044-1058.
ORLOWSKI S et al. 2017. Differential expression of water channel- and noncoding RNA biogenesis-related genes in three lines of chickens under a short-term water restriction. Poultry Science 96: 4172–4181.
OGURA Y et al. 2015. Dissociation of the neural substrates of foraging effort and its social facilitation in the domestic chick. Behavioural Brain Research 294: 162-176.
PALESTIS BG & BURGER J. 1998. Evidence for social facilitation of preening in the common tern. Animal Behaviour 56: 1107-1111.
PEREIRA DCDO et al. 2017. Presence of roosters in an alternative egg production system aiming at animal welfare. Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia 46: 175-184.
PIZZARI T. 2016. The Wood-Gush legacy: A sociobiology perspective to fertility and welfare in chickens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science181: 12-18.
PRESCOTT NB & WATHES CM. 2002. Preference and motivation of laying hens to eat under different illuminances and the effect of illuminance on eating behaviour. British Poultry Science 43: 190–195.
RACCOURSIER M et al. 2019. Light intensity preferences of broiler chickens: implications for welfare. Animals 13: 1–7.
RIBER AB et al. 2017. Environmental Enrichment for Broiler Breeders: An Undeveloped Field. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 4: 1-6.
RIVERA M et al. 2018. Avian prenatal auditory stimulation: progress and perspectives. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 72: 1-14.
RUBIN CJ et al. 2010. Whole-genome resequencing reveals loci under selection during chicken domestication. Nature 464: 587–591.
SAEED M et al. 2019. Heat stress management in poultry farms: a comprehensive overview. Journal of Thermal Biology 84: 414-425.
SAVORY J. 2010. Nutrition, feeding and drinking behaviour and welfare. In: DUNCAN IJH & HAWKINGS P. 1Ed. The welfare of domestic fowls and other captive birds. London: Springer. p. 165-187.
SLOBODCHIKOFF CN. 2012. Chasing doctor dolittle: learning the language of animals. 1.ed. New York: Martin’s Press.
TAHAMTANI FM et al. 2016. Effects of litter provision during early rearing and environmental enrichment during the production phase on feather pecking and feather damage in laying hens. Poultry Science 95: 2747–2756.
TAHERPARVAR G et al. 2016. Effect of litter treatment on growth performance, intestinal development, and selected cecum microbiota in broiler chickens. Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia 45: 257-264.
TEFERA M. 2012. Acoustic Signals in Domestic Chicken (Gallus gallus): A Tool for Teaching Veterinary Ethology and Implication for language learning. Acoustic Signals in Domestic Chicken (Gallus gallus): A Tool for Teaching Veterinary Ethology and Implication for language learning. Ethiopian Veterinary Journal 16: 77-84.
TEUNISSEN N et al. 2018. More than kin: subordinates foster strong bonds with relatives and potential mates in a social bird. Behavioral Ecology 29: 1316-1324.
TONG Q et al. 2013. Embryonic development and the physiological factors that coordinate hatching in domestic chickens. Poultry Science 92: 620-628.
VAN DER KLIS JD & DE LANGE L. 2013. Water intake in poultry. Disponível em: http://www.wpsa.com/index.php/ publications/wpsa-proceedings/2013/19th-espn. Acesso em: 20 out. 2021.
VILLAGRÁ A et al. 2014. Behavior of broiler chickens in four different substrates: a choice test. Revista Brasileira Ciências Avícolas 16: 67-75.
VIOLA ES et al. 2011. Água na avicultura: importância, qualidade e exigências. In: Manejo ambiental na avicultura. 1.ed. Concórdia: Embrapa suínos e aves. 226p.
WEBSTER AB & HURNIK JF. 1994. Synchronization of behaviour among laying hens in battery cages. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 40: 153-165.
WEMELSFELDER F & MULLAN S. 2014. Applying ethological and health indicators to practical animal welfare assessment. Rev. Sci. Tech. Oie. 33: 111-120.
WIDOWSKI TM et al. 2016. Laying hen welfare I. Social environment and space. World's Poultry Science Journal 72: 333-342.
WIDOWSKI TM et al. 2017. The effect of space allowance and cage size on laying hens housed in furnished cages, Part II: Behavior at the feeder. Poultry Science 96: 3816–3823.
WILLIAMS CL et al. 2013. Comparison of broiler flock daily water consumption and water-to-feed ratios for flocks grown in 1991, 2000–2001, and 2010–201. Journal of applied poultry research 22: 934-941.
WILLIAMS J & RANDLE H. 2017. Is the expression of stereotypic behavior a performance-limiting factor in animals? Journal of Veterinary Behavior Clinical Applications and Research 20: 1–10.
WINTER J et al. 2021. Piling behaviour in Swiss layer flocks: description and related factors. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 236: 105272.
XIANG H et al. 2021. Removal of roosters alters the domestic phenotype and microbial and genetic profile of hens. Science China Life Sciences 64: 1-13.
ZABUDSKII YI. 2017. Reproductive function in hybrid; impact, a. n.; egg, of maternal hormones accumulated in. Poultry farming—science and technologies. Agricultural Biology 51: 436-449.
ZAPLETAL D et al. 2011. Behavior patterns of the cage-housed breeding flock of pheasants (Phasianus colchicus). Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis 59: 215-220.
ZENTALL TR. 2012. Perspectives on observational learning in animals. Journal of Comparative Psychology 126: 114-128.
ZIMMERMAN PH et al. 2000. Thwarting of behaviour in different contexts and the gakel-call in the laying hen. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 69: 255–264.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Authors & Revista de Ciências Agroveterinárias
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors publishing in this journal are in agreement with the following terms:
a) Authors maintain the copyrights and concede to the journal the copyright for the first publication, according to Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
b) Authors have the authority to assume additional contracts with the content of the manuscript.
c) Authors may supply and distribute the manuscript published by this journal.
