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. 2025 Jan 27;57(2):33.
doi: 10.1007/s11250-025-04292-z.

Effects of different environmental enrichment tools to improve behavior, welfare, and growth performance of broiler chickens

Abdul Ghani  1 , Shahid Mehmood  2 , Faisal Hussnain  1 , Saima  3
Affiliations

Effects of different environmental enrichment tools to improve behavior, welfare, and growth performance of broiler chickens

Abdul Ghani et al. Trop Anim Health Prod. .

Abstract

This study was performed to evaluate the effect of various environmental enrichment (EE) tools on broiler growth, welfare, behavior, carcass, and meat quality. A total of 300 commercial broilers were randomly divided into 05 treatments. The treatments include various EE tools such as perches, balls, hanging bottles, and laser lights placed for birds and a control group. The birds kept with perches and hanging bottles had the lowest feed intake, while the birds in the control group showed the poor feed conversion ratio compared to all EE treatments. Broilers raised under different EE were more active and exhibited frequent maintenance behavior (i.e., walking, jumping, running, wing flapping and aggressiveness) than the control group which spent more time in feeding and drinking. Moreover, the birds with EE had reduced incidence of toe injuries and footpad dermatitis than those in the control group. Birds reared with perches had higher meat lightness, whereas meat from the birds in the control group had lower cooking loss and shear force. It can be concluded that the use of various EE tools improved the welfare and behavior of the birds without affecting bodyweight of the birds. Furthermore, the use of hanging bottles and placing perches reduced feed intake and improved feed conversion ratio.

Keywords: Balls; Behavior; Hanging bottles; Laser lights; Perches; Welfare.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations: All the procedures performed were performed in accordance with the ethical merits of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan, and were approved by the Animal Ethical Review Committee. Ethics approval: All the procedures performed were performed in accordance with the ethical merits of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan, and were approved by the Animal Ethical Review Committee (No. DR/60; 2023). Consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent to publication: Not applicable. Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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