Lighting quality evaluation on growth performance and feather pecking behavior of broilers

No SJR dataDec 17, 2024Poultry science

How lighting quality affects growth and feather pecking behavior in broiler chickens

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Abstract

Lighting color may influence the plumage damage and walking behavior of broilers but not their growth performance.

Cold white lighting was associated with greater daily walking steps at 8 weeks compared to warm white and red lighting.
Birds in the cold white group had lower plumage scores, indicating more severe damage, compared to those in the red group.
Plumage scores for backs and wings were significantly lower than those for tails.
Serotonin levels in blood were higher in birds exposed to warm white lighting than in those under cold white, but lower than in red light.
No significant correlations were found among growth performance, upper beak length, walking steps, plumage scores, and serotonin levels.

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Light is an important factor affecting the feather pecking behavior in poultry. To evaluate the quality of lighting in production of a local broiler breed, this study was designed to investigate the effects of light color on the growth performance (body weight, feed conversion ratio and upper beak length), welfare parameters (walking step, plumage damage and hormone level) relating to feather pecking and their correlations. One hundred and twenty 49-day-old Youhuang broilers were randomly distributed into 3 lighting treatment groups (warm white, cold white and red) and reared for 4 weeks. The results showed that the lighting had no significant effect on the growth performance (P > 0.05). The daily walking steps of birds in cold white group were greater than birds in warm white and red group at 8 (P < 0.05) rather than 9 to 11 (P > 0.05) weeks of age. Compared with birds in red group, the birds in cold white group had lower plumage scores (P < 0.05) and the birds in warm white group had similar plumage scores (P > 0.05). Lower scores meant severer plumage damage. Moreover, the plumage scores of backs and wings were both lower than those on tails (P < 0.05). The serotonin levels in blood of birds in warm white group were greater than those in cold white group (P < 0.05) but lower than those in red group (P < 0.05). However, during the entire study, there were no correlations among body weight gain ratios, upper beak length gain ratios, average daily walking steps, total plumage scores of different body parts, and serotonin levels of 24 selected birds in three light treatment groups (P > 0.05). Considering the friendliness of white light to human eye, warm white light should be recommended to reduce pecking behavior in production.

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