Social enrichment improves affective state and foraging behavior while maintaining growth performance in broiler chickens

This study hypothesizes that broiler chickens exposed to social enrichment (n = 48) through regular positive human interactions will exhibit enhanced behavioral welfare indicators such as increased exploratory behaviors (locomotion, foraging), a reduced fear response (measured through tonic immobility and attention bias tests), a preference for sweet and umami compounds, and improved growth performance when compared to those exposed solely to physical enrichment (n = 48)(e.g., perches, platforms, and straw bales).
The data analysis includes behavioral observations capturing both the frequency and duration of various behaviors in broiler chickens, such as feeding, drinking, locomotion, lying, preening, dustbathing, interaction with environmental enrichment (perches, platforms), and social behaviors like mock fighting and gentle pecking, as well as foraging. The dataset also contains information from the attention bias test, which measures the duration of behaviors such as first step, begin feeding, time spent feeding, and resume feeding, along with binary scores (1-0) indicating the presence or absence of vigilance behaviors like erect posture, neck stretching, looking around, and freezing. In the section on sweet and umami taste preferences, the data reflect the consumption of two matrices, one neutral with water and another containing sucrose or monosodium glutamate (MSG), calculated by subtracting the remaining solution from the total offered. The results of the tonic immobility test are also included, which record the time in seconds each bird remained immobile. Finally, the productive data encompass parameters such as average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and final body weight (BW), measured throughout the 43-day production cycle to evaluate the impact of different enrichment strategies on broiler productivity.