In poultry, stress has many, often harmful, impacts. When an animal is subjected to a stressful situation, it will have to adapt its behaviour and metabolism, which will impact on its welfare and zootechnical performance. This initially manifests as a drop in feed consumption and performance. But it can go as far as nervousness, even aggression and the appearance of deviant intensive pecking behaviour (Zepp et al.,2018). Injuries and pain appear in the poultry, and in extreme cases, this can lead to the death of the animals. In addition to the deterioration in the poultry’s welfare, their performance is altered; for example, eggs production in laying hens decreases when pecking stress occurs on the farm (El-Lethey et al., 2000). While not all the stress factors can be eliminated, it is necessary to protect the animal from their deleterious effects on your livestock.
Stress cannot be treated!
The only way to treat an installed pecking behaviour would be to resort to veterinary medicinal products. However, anxiolitics and antidepressants are not available for livestock. In the absence of curative treatment, it is therefore essential to anticipate stressful situations in the poultry industry.
Stress is contagious!
The perception of stress is an individual experience. The most sensitive animals will experience a situation very negatively, while for others it may seem harmless. But a stressed poultry can quickly become a danger to the whole farm. Among other things, stress can lead to aggressive behaviour in poultry. The first stressed chickens start to bite their fellow chickens, which will in turn suffer from stress and develop this behavioural disorder. We then go from a small, isolated group of individuals displaying deviant behaviour to several hundred or even thousands of stressed chickens, which will also begin to display behavioural problems.
A few individuals showing stress that initially went unnoticed can therefore lead to catastrophic situations. If we can’t identify and treat the most vulnerable individuals, we need to protect the whole group by thinking ahead.
There are solutions!
Preventing stress is essential to avoid the deleterious consequences of widespread stress throughout the farm. Fortunately, several solutions exist to help you avoid stress in your farms.
1- Ensuring an optimal environment for the animal. However, in certain situations, particularly during periods of confinement, poultry needs cannot be met. This strategy cannot be applied on a permanent basis.
2- Training animals to adapt to environmental change. While this would be THE perfect strategy for preventing stress, it is far from being the most economical and practical, requiring an enormous amount of time in the breeder’s work.
3 – Using VeO. Our sensory solution based on an unique orange essential oil extract enables animals to adapt easily, thanks to a reduction in the perception of stress. Events perceived more positively by poultry, and more positive expression of behaviour!
Reducing the individual consequences of stress for better overall results is the path that Phodé proposes with VeO, its “barrier gesture” against stress transmission on your farm.
