FROM WORLD POULTRY
March 2013
Skeletal health in laying hens is a major welfare and economic problem with up to 80% of hens suffering bone breakages in some free range systems. A new three-year study hopes to reduce the fracture rates in laying hens thanks to a grant of £532,000 funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and supported by industrial partner, Noble Foods.With the 2012 EU ban on battery cage systems, as many as 30 million hens will be housed in alternative systems, mostly free range. This means a possible 24 million hens suffering bone breakage each year in the UK, which the industry and government view as unsustainable.
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Sparky's editorial reaction: 80% of the free range hens have broken bones - from collisons with other birds?? What?? And this research is to figure out what to do to solve the problem?? I was very nearly compelled to pull up my user name for World Poultry (barndirtisaeuphemismforshit) and leave some snarky comment about how warped it is to need a study to prompt common sense. BUT, then I realized that this kind of study is absolutely necessary because the established poultry industry is amazingly removed from the reality of chickens. They're still trying to figure out an entirely new business model. So be it if it takes some absurd study to come to grips with what the rest of us already knew....free range is completely different from battery cages.
