| dc.description.abstract | Understanding the normal behaviors of birds within standard commercial conditions is essential for addressing their behavioral needs. This research aims to improve understanding of normal behavioral development in broiler chicks and turkey poults by assessing the duration, diurnal rhythms, diversity, and sequence of behaviors over the first seven days of life. In the first study, 75 mixed sexed broiler chicks were randomly placed on day of hatch into 3 pens (25 birds/pen). From each pen, 3 chicks were selected as focal subjects (n=9). Behavior was recorded from day 1 to 7 of age and assessed by 24-hour continuous sampling. The proportion of time chicks spent performing behaviors was analyzed by age and time of day, diversity was assessed using the Shannon diversity index, and behavioral sequences were evaluated using time lag probability transition matrices. Chicks allotted more time to standing, walking, running, jumping, nudging, eating, drinking, foraging, allopreening, sparring, and worm-running as they aged, and less time to environmental pecking and conspecific pecking (quadratic). Sleeping decreased linearly with increasing age whilst wing-flapping, body-shaking, scratching-self, and frolicking increased. Chicks spent the most time sleeping (13.66%) during the dark period. Behaviors chick performed most in the morning included walking (1.84%), running (0.36%), standing (1.58%), head-shaking (0.04%), and frolicking (0.23%). Jumping (0.12%, 0.10%) and body-shaking (0.02%, 0.02%) peaked in the morning and afternoon. Eating (2.39%, 2.09%) and drinking (1.14%, 0.82%) were highest in the morning and evening. Midday saw more sitting (4.05%), allopreening (0.09%), and sparring (0.15%). Nudging was more common during pre-dark (0.02%), dark (0.02%), and midday (0.02%). Foraging (0.52%), environmental pecking (0.59%), and conspecific pecking (0.06%) increased the most during the pre-dark period. Wing-flapping was greater in the afternoon and evening (0.04%, 0.04%). Behavior diversity increased with age. Within behavioral sequences, locomotive and resting behaviors were the most likely to follow any antecedent behavior (4th quartile >0.09%). The likelihood of any target behaviors typically varied by antecedent behavior and time intervals as chicks matured. Study 2 evaluated the behaviors of male turkey poults. The housing, methods of data collection, and analysis were the same as study 1. The performance of walking, running, standing, jumping, eating, drinking, wing-flapping, and frolicking by poults increased with age, while sitting, sleeping, stretching, and adjusting decreased (quadratic). Time spent body-shaking, scratching-self, foraging, sparring, and strutting increased linearly as birds matured. The time-of-day analysis showed that poults spent more time nudging, (0.51%), sleeping (15.04%), and adjusting (0.49%) during the dark period. Morning and mid-day periods saw increased walking (3.41%, 3.46%), running (0.31%, 0.32%), standing (1.88%, 1.92%), eating (3.37%, 3.54%), drinking (1.62%, 1.64%), body-shaking (0.06%), and head-shaking (0.05%). Foraging was most common in the afternoon (0.29%), while evening and pre-dark periods had more sitting (2.57%, 2.50%) and allopreening (0.05%, 0.04%). Preening predominated in the pre-dark (0.41%) and morning (0.38%) periods. Scratching peaked at mid-day (0.02%). Afternoon and evening had the highest environmental pecking (0.22%, 0.23%), conspecific pecking (0.03%, 0.04%), and strutting (0.10%, 0.07%). Stretching was more frequent in the morning (0.03%), afternoon (0.02%), and evening (0.02%). The diversity of poult behavior increased with age. For behavioral sequences, locomotive behaviors, standing, and sitting were the most likely target behaviors (above 4th quartile >0.10%) to follow all antecedent behaviors. The probability of transitions between specific behaviors varied with both the antecedent behavior and time interval for the probability of all target behavior as the poults aged. These studies highlight the development of behaviors in broiler chicks and turkey poults where significant interactions between age, time of day, and sequence in behavior performance were found. Additionally, results show that the behavioral repertoire expands early in the life of poultry. | en_US |
