Effects of environmental enrichment, fluorescent and intermittent lighting on injurious pecking amongst male XXXX poults.

@entity130 @entity233
1. Under commercial and experimental conditions domestic @entity233 often cause @entity130 to pen-mates by repeated pecking, sometimes fatally. Environmental enrichment or lighting manipulations might be used to mitigate such injurious pecking. 2. This study examined responses to 4 treatments (2 rooms/treatment) of 8 groups of 100, non-beak trimmed, non-desnooded, male domestic @entity233 from 1 to 35 d of age. 3. Birds of 1 treatment were reared under conditions approximating to commercial rearing (12L:12D incandescent, Control) whereas the experimental treatments were 12L:12D incandescent plus supplemental ultraviolet radiation, straw supplementation of litter, pecking substrates and visual barriers (Enriched), 12L:12D fluorescent lighting (Fluorescent), and 2(2L:3D):2L:12D incandescent (Intermittent). 4. Compared to control birds, the incidence of @entity130 caused by wing or tail pecking were both lower in the Enriched but not significantly different in the Fluorescent or Intermittent. 5. Injuries caused by head pecking did not occur in the Enriched rooms but were observed in at least 1 of the rooms with Control, Fluorescent and Intermittent treatments. 6. Despite considerable environmental differences between treatments, there was remarkable consistency within each type of injurious pecking in age at which @entity130 were 1st recorded (wing pecking, 9.38+/-1.31 d; tail pecking, 20.43+/-2.42 d; head pecking, 27.8+/-2.13 d). The roles of feather emergence, hierarchy formation in @entity233 poults and appearance of feathers are discussed as possible explanations of these consistencies.
