ABSTRACT
Broiler breeding flocks: management and animal welfare Ingrid C. de Jong and Rick A. van Emous, Wageningen Livestock Research, The Netherlands
1 Introduction
2 Housing conditions and management in the rearing period
3 Housing conditions and management in the production period
4 Welfare issues: restricted feeding and water restriction
5 Welfare issues: excisions, mating behaviour and quality of feather cover
6 Environmental enrichment
7 Vaccinations
8 Transgenerational effects
9 Concluding remarks
10 Where to look for further information
11 References
This chapter discusses the management of broiler breeders, that is, the parent stock of broiler chickens, and welfare issues related to the different life stages of broiler breeders. Where commercial broilers are the product of a cross of four lines, broiler parent stock (broiler breeders) are the product of a cross of two lines; both the male and female broiler breeder is the product of a cross of a specific paternal line and a specific maternal line (Hiemstra and Ten Napel, 2013). The actual figures on the number of broiler breeders worldwide are lacking; as an indication, in Europe the number of broiler breeders is estimated to be 44 million (Horne and Bondt, 2014). Management and housing of grandparents and great grandparents (but not pedigree stock) is to a large extent similar to that of broiler breeders (EFSA, 2010; Hiemstra and Ten Napel, 2013) and not described in this chapter. Nowadays, three companies dominate the world market for broiler breeding stock: Aviagen Broiler Breeders, Cobb-Vantress and Hubbard.
