Suchergebnisse

Throughout the world, most laying hens producing eggs for human consumption are still kept in small, wire battery cages. Ethologists have well documented the behavioural needs of hens, and the way that battery cage confinement thwarts highly motivated behaviour and reduces hens' quality of life. While cage-free alternatives are now being used around the world, the more challenging management in these systems has contributed to the slower than desired uptake that would be necessary for improving hens' welfare. As part of the 2021 Interna- tional Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE) virtual conference, a workshop was held with the aim to identify solutions to the common challenges. Attendees were given information about cage-free production and then sectioned into breakout groups for discussion. Following the workshop, they were asked to participate in a short survey. Breakout sessions included the topics of stakeholder engagement and further research needs, as well as identification of solutions to the common challenges. Across the two days of the workshop, there were 80 participants, from 27 countries, mostly ethologists (both students and non-students), but including egg pro- ducers, and representatives from government and non-governmental (NGO) organizations. Of the 80 partici- pants, 35 completed the survey. Participants generated many insightful and practical ideas in both the breakout rooms and in the survey, but one particularly salient theme was that solutions already exist and what is needed is greater education and dissemination of technical knowledge (half of survey responses from participants in the developed world and 42% of ethologist's responses fit within the theme of established producers assisting new producers or producer education and training). This was further evidenced by the noted success of cage-free producers in a variety of different geographic areas, climates, production scales and in both developed and developing regions. It was concluded that cross-sector collaboration will be ...