ABSTRACT
Beak trimming (also known as debeaking, beak tipping or beak treatment) refers to the partial amputation of the beak, a procedure routinely carried out soon after hatching to prevent injurious pecking in laying hens and broiler breeders. For many years, the most common method of beak trimming was the application of a hot blade (HB) which simultaneously cuts and cauterises the upper and lower mandible, but in the last decade, this approach has been generally superseded by infrared (IR) beak trimming. Here, the beak is subject to a high-intensity IR energy source which causes subsequent loss of the beak tip. In the past, HB beak trimming in early life was sometimes followed by a second trim in adulthood (Hester and Shea-Moore, 2003), but IR trimming is applied only to chicks.
