Water consumption could be a welfare indicator for broilers

Water is not just an essential nutrient for broiler production, but it could also be a key indicator of flock health and welfare, according to a broiler producer speaking at the recent WPSA Annual Conference in Southport.

Louise Manning has funded her own PhD where she has spent the last few years researching various computer-based tools designed to give producers meaningful information on how their birds are performing. It involved carrying out 12 different studies with a total of 10.6 million broilers

In particular, she looked at the potential use of water as a measurable indicator of bird welfare and performance. Furthermore, could water consumption act as a “lead” rather than a “lag” welfare indicator.

Broiler welfare has historically been measured using lag indicators such as final mortality reject levels and leg health. Although they offer many benefits, one limitation is that they are not available until at the end of the cycle. Therefore, any changes in management arising from the data can only be used in subsequent flocks.

In contrast, lead indicators are real time measures and can be used to prompt corrective action within the current flock. Lead indicators include feed and water consumption, air and litter quality plus weight gain.

Most producers are already using feed as a measure, but few have considered water consumption.

“Ask a producer what his feed conversion ratio is and he will easily give you a figure. But when I asked producers taking part in my studies if they knew their water use efficiency, they thought I had gone mad.”

Her first task in her project was to define the baseline for the various indicators. With water, she found an average water consumption of 7.7 litres/birds/cycle for all crops.

But what was more interesting was the variability with water consumption ranging 5.58-9.62 litres.

“Sites varied widely despite all being fed the same feed from the same mill.”

For example, Site 9 had a much higher consumption than the rest and this was eventually traced to a high salt content of the water. Consequently, the producer was spending much more on gas to dry out litter. In contrast, Site 3 had a lower consumption and this was put down to low water pressure.

Eventually, her hope is that water consumption will eventually be an early indicator for footpad dermatitis, allowing producers to make changes before the problem occurs.

It could also help breeders. “When selecting birds for a higher feed intake, the last thing you want is a bird with a much higher water intake, leading to wet litter and more foot pad lesions,” said Dr Manning.

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