3 questions on the future of perches in cage-free housing

Perches are a necessity in cage-free housing systems, but changing them may be necessary, too.

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Austin Alonzo
Austin Alonzo

Perches are a necessity in cage-free housing systems, but changing them may be necessary, too.

As cage-free egg farming is expanded around the world, some in the field are asking if the current round, metal tube perch design is the best for bird performance and welfare. On the welfare side, perches fulfill the hen’s natural desire to perch and give less dominant birds a way to escape more aggressive ones. From a management standpoint, including perches reduces aggressive behaviors and gives the farmer more usable space inside the layer house.

At the Egg Industry Center’s Egg Industry Issues Forum, the attendees asked whether the perch is as beneficial as it can be for the hen and the farmer, and discussed innovations that could improve the devices. The conference took place April 19 and 20, in Columbus, Ohio.

1. Is the metal, round perch the best design?

Dr. Lars Schrader, the leader of Germany’s Institute of Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry, shared the results of a national study comparing hens raised in enriched colony housing with those raised in aviary housing. The study was conducted in response to growing concern in Germany about keeping hens in cages. The country is banning keeping layers in cages starting in 2025.

As part of the research, Schrader explained, the team examined how the birds interacted with different types of perches – varying in shape and material – in both settings. He observed that the birds often have trouble making a clean landing moving from a higher perch to a lower one, causing them to collide with the perch or fall off of it completely. He noted as the perches get more use, they lose their friction and birds slip off more easily.

Dr Lars Schrader, Of Germany's Federal Research Institute For Animal Health, Speaks At The Egg Industry Center's Egg Issues Forum

Dr. Lars Schrader, of Germany's Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, speaks about research comparing hens living in cage-free and enriched colony cage environments as part of the Egg Industry Center's Egg Issues Forum in April in Columbus, Ohio. | Austin Alonzo

With this in mind, Schrader said the team designed a “soft” perch. Essentially, the soft perch is a standard metal bar wrapped with a rubber material. Once wrapped, the perch was larger and easier to grip for the hens moving downward. A video he screened at the conference showed one hen moving down onto a traditional perch then instantly struggling to keep a grip and falling off the perch. The hen moving down onto a soft perch landed easily and maintained its grip.

While the soft perch was only mentioned in passing, those in the audience were intrigued with the concept and asked more about it. Schrader said the research showed the thickest perches made for the best foot stability. Going forward, the most important thing about a “soft perch” is providing a material that is easily gripped and somewhat soft to the touch.

The design was just a prototype and, he said, is not yet in use in any commercial operations in Germany.

2. Are perches causing keel bone damage?

Schrader and others discussed whether the perch might be causing bodily harm to the hens living in a cage-free environment – specifically to the keel bone.

The keel bone is an extension of the sternum that provides an anchor for the bird’s wing muscles and provides leverage for flight. Keel integrity is increasingly seen as an indicator of animal welfare. Damaged keels are associated with increased mortality, reduced egg production and egg quality, and keel damage is likely associated with pain for the animal.

As part of his research, Schrader explained, the study examined how birds interacted with perches and where the pressure was actually located on their footpad and keel bones. The study showed that perching hens tend to rest on their keel bones more than their footpads.

In a separate presentation on her research, Dr. Maja Makagon, assistant professor of applied animal behavior at the University of California, Davis’ Department of Animal Science, discussed the results of a study conducted to analyze keel bone damage in an enriched colony layer environment.

Makagon said 74 percent of the observed collisions were with perches located inside the enriched colony and 30.5 percent of those collisions occurred while birds were ascending onto the perch. The study also determined the number of collisions – rather than the number of keel bone impacts, strength of impacts, or presence of previous fractures – was most likely to negatively affect keel bone integrity.

She said the study highlights the need for additional research to understand what aspects of the perch, such as height, design, and location, are associated with the risk of keel bone damage and if other variables outside the scope of the study – like the hen’s breed and its housing type – play a role.

“I don’t want the takeaway from this to be, ‘Let’s take out the perches.' Certainly not,” Makagon said. “There’s a lot of good things that they do, but certainly it underscores that really we need to think about how we are designing the systems.”

Not everyone is convinced the perch is causing keel bone damage. In a separate presentation on bird management, Maikel Veron, vice president of North American sales for Vencomatic, argued that the science surrounding perches and keel bones is outdated and inaccurate because it doesn’t study how hens really do in a commercial, cage-free setting.

He said keel bone strength can be influenced by diet, genetics and the type of housing system the hen was reared in as a pullet, among other factors. Damage can come from numerous sources aside from the perch such as collisions with other parts of the system or other birds, or poorly executed jumps moving up and down in the system. More research in a real-world environment is needed before one can say perches are causing keel bone damage.

3. Can a perch do more?

In his remarks, Veron mentioned Vencomatic’s launch of a new product – called the Q-Perch – which offers what he said is a superior design as well as a novel technology to kill the poultry red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae).

The Q-Perch is mushroom-shaped, he said, which offers superior comfort for the birds, as well as better stability and grip. The shape also conceals two channels on the underside of the perch with an electrical current that is lethal to mites crawling up the perches and onto the birds.  A Vencomatic release promoting the product said the barrier keeps the mites from eating, and therefore reproducing, which effectively controls the mite population without the use of pesticides.

The release said field tests of the concept began in 2013 and all trials demonstrated the Q-Perch’s effectiveness against mites. The pests, which can be more common in cage-free than conventional layer housing, carry diseases and sap productivity from a flock.

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